VOLUNTEERS SADDLE UP FOR EXTRA SAFETY.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Sheriff's volunteers on horseback and extra deputies have been posted to patrol shopping centers to deter vehicle burglaries, purse-snatchings and other crimes against holiday shoppers.

The holiday shopping patrols will continue through Christmas, when the deputies will be assigned to traffic patrols to look for impaired drivers through New Year's.

``Those deputies are out there just for crime suppression in shopping centers and parking lots,'' said Lt. Steve Smith at the Lancaster sheriff's station. ``They don't respond to other calls. They are just used for patrols.''

In Palmdale, three deputies have been added to patrol the Antelope Valley Mall and other major shopping centers, assisted by volunteers on horseback in shopping center parking lots.

In Lancaster, between six and 12 deputies have been assigned to patrol shopping centers and their parking lots.

The Lancaster deputies' orders are to contact merchants daily to ask about problems and to look for trouble.

Most of the deputies assigned to the shopping-center patrols will work on overtime paid by the cities, an annual expense for both Palmdale and Lancaster.

The mounted patrol are all volunteers, riding their own horses. Officials say the mounted unit is especially useful in the parking lots because the riders' high vantage point gives them a panoramic view of vehicle burglars or other illegal activity.

Criminals already have been targeting shoppers: On Nov. 19, a female shopper was accosted at gunpoint in a mall parking lot, but her screams deterred the would-be robbers. They drove a block to a Sam's Club parking lot, where they stole a woman's purse.

Four suspects were arrested within minutes after their vehicle was spotted.

On Monday, two gunmen kidnapped a Sam's Club manager and his wife at their Lancaster home, drove them to the Palmdale store and forced the man to open the safe.

The gunmen apparently had followed the couple home after the store closed, officials said. After emptying the safe, the gunmen left the couple bound. The couple managed to free themselves and call 911.

No one was in custody as of Friday morning for the kidnapping and robbery, officials said.

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Photo:

(color) Members of the L.A. County mounted patrol, from left, Donna Carroll, Dennis Zaferis and Teri Rogers, will work the Antelope Valley Mall during the holiday season.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer