SNACK STOP DELAYS ROBBERY SUSPECTS JUST LONG ENOUGH.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

Four Palmdale teen-agers trying to gain notoriety for their street gang robbed the minimart at a gasoline station early Wednesday, then were arrested after they took time to stop and eat stolen food, authorities said.

Thomas Trevino, 19, Omar Zavala, 18, and two boys whose names were withheld, because they are juveniles, were arrested soon after 2 a.m. on suspicion of robbing an AM/PM minimart and gas station in the 33400 block of Crown Valley Road. Authorities said they were traveling north on the freeway at speeds up to 100 mph when deputies stopped them.

They would have been farther away from the minimart and might have escaped if they had not stopped to eat, said Sgt. Dave Sauer.

The suspects initially drove around Palmdale looking for a place to rob before deciding to travel to Acton, officials said.

``After seeing too many cops in Palmdale, they headed out of town,'' Sauer said. ``They drove around until they found a place that only had one person inside.''

Officials said three teens entered the store, and the fourth waited in a Chevrolet pickup truck with the engine running. The robbers made off with food, cigarettes and $200 in cash.

``They said they were going to look for another place to rob because that one was so easy,'' Sauer said.

Officials said the four, although Palmdale residents, belong to a gang is based outside the Antelope Valley and are suspected of committing the robbery as a way to get noticed.