A 53-year-old repeat offender will be spending nearly two decades in prison after a violent stickup at a Glendale phone store that left a worker injured and terrified. Gilbert Lara was sentenced Monday to 19 years behind bars for a knife-point robbery at a Glendale phone shop in October. He had pleaded guilty in April to a single felony count of kidnapping as part of a deal that dropped other charges, according to prosecutors. The attack was caught on security cameras, showed the employee being assaulted, and triggered a swift police response.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office said Lara admitted forcing his way into the store, grabbing cash, then herding an employee into a back office, where he threatened her with a knife. As detailed by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, he entered his guilty plea to kidnapping in April and was sentenced this week. "Crimes like this go far beyond theft," County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement.
What the footage shows
Security video from the Oct. 7, 2025 incident at a Cricket Wireless near 67th Avenue and Camelback Road shows a man holding a knife, striking the worker, and then bolting from the store. Glendale police said their real-time crime center helped track down the suspect's vehicle on camera, according to footage reviewed by FOX 10 Phoenix.
The employee was left with a cut to her eyelid and told officers she feared she was about to be stabbed.
Investigation and arrest
Prosecutors said investigators pieced the case together using store surveillance video, license-plate-reader hits, and cell-phone records that placed Lara at the scene. A later search of his home turned up clothing that matched what the robber wore during the holdup.
According to prosecutors, Lara was first indicted on charges of armed robbery and aggravated assault before accepting a plea to kidnapping in April. The county statement also noted that he had a long record of theft-related convictions and was already on community supervision at the time of the Glendale attack, as outlined by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Retail crime crackdown
The case lands as local law enforcement and prosecutors tout special task forces and tougher prosecution strategies aimed at organized retail theft, which they say has surged in recent years.
Reporting by ABC15 shows the county received 900 organized retail crime case submittals in 2024 and hundreds more in the years that followed. Business owners say constant theft and the occasional turn to outright violence are not just line items on a balance sheet, but problems that ripple out to customers and employees alike.
