For more than 12 hours Tuesday, police thought they had an armed robber cornered at a 7-Eleven in the heart of downtown Long Beach. Cops on loudspeakers ordered him to come out. Officers lobbed tear gas. SWAT team members parked armored vehicles outside. Rifle-toting police even scaled the roof and scoured next-door businesses in case he’d managed to get through the ceiling or walls.
He eluded them all — and managed to come away a few hundred dollars richer, says a nearby shop owner. Mike Rosetti, who runs Broadway Pizza, says he has security camera footage and an empty till to prove it.
Rosetti lost a full day of business as police staked out the corner at Pine Avenue and Broadway. His shop is two doors down from the 7-Eleven where police say a gunman showed up around 2 a.m., sending employees running out of the store to flag down nearby cops…