South Bay

CINEMA VERITE: Moviegoers emerging from a Hawthorne theater after seeing the shoot-’em-up action picture “Under Siege 2” must have thought they were walking into Siege 3.

Police had cordoned off the Hawthorne Plaza 6 theaters after four men in black clothes and ski masks stole $600 from the theater’s candy counter cash registers and locked frightened employees in a storage closet about 10:50 p.m. Tuesday, Lt. Arvid Krueger said.

Officers thought the suspects might have fled into one or more of the facility’s six theaters and blended in with the audience.

As each film let out, theatergoers were funneled through one exit, where they were searched by police and given once-overs by witnesses. None of the suspects were found, Krueger said, but police did arrest one customer, not involved in the crime, on suspicion of carrying a concealed handgun.