Placentia : Experienced Robber Gets $9,000 at Bank

A man armed with a handgun ordered employees of the Mitsubishi Bank of California onto the floor, then made off with $9,000 in unmarked bills, Placentia police said Thursday.

No one was injured during the 10 a.m. robbery in which the lone gunman ordered tellers to clean out their registers.

“Everybody get down. Put the money on the counter. Be calm and you won’t get hurt,” the man reportedly told bank workers who quickly complied.

The gunman, reportedly an experienced bank robber, also ordered tellers not to give him any “exploding money”--money packs with die in them--Lt. Darryl Thomann said.

Thomann said no guard was on duty at the bank, at 111 E. Yorba Linda Blvd. Shortly after the gunman fled, police found a hot-wired, stolen pickup truck several blocks away that was believed to have been used in the getaway, Thomann said.

Late Thursday, Placentia police and the FBI were seeking a white male in his early 30s. He was described as 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing 230 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. Thomann said the man is a suspect in seven other robberies in Southern California, two in Houston and one in Denver.

Also on Thursday, in an apparently unrelated incident, a man robbed the Sanwa Bank on Yorba Linda Blvd. in Fullerton, just across the street from the Mitsubishi Bank of California.

The second robbery occured at 11:36 a.m., Sgt. Jeff Roop said. He said the robber did not display a weapon but simply handed the teller a note and then fled on foot with an undetermined amount of cash.

Roop described the Sanwa robber as a white male with curly blonde hair, about 26 years old. He said the FBI and Fullerton police are investigating.