Suspect in Robbery at Ice Cream Store Jailed as ‘Underwear Bandit’

A Riverside County man, pursued and arrested following the robbery of a San Gabriel Valley ice cream store, was jailed as the suspected “Underwear Bandit” when 10 pairs of women’s panties were found in his car, authorities said Monday.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Smith said more than 40 robberies in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties have been committed by a man who orders female employees to give him their panties.

Smith said Bruce Allen Lyons, 33, of Moreno Valley was captured late Sunday evening shortly after the holdup of a Baskin-Robbins store in the 18000 block of Colima Road in Rowland Heights. Employees gave officers a description of the robber.

Shortly after the description was broadcast, Lyons was spotted in a car without license plates driving north on Fullerton Road, Smith said. Deputies Larry McCabe and Chris Knox attempted to pull him over, but he sped east on the Pomona Freeway.

Smith said Lyons lost control of his car and crashed into an off-ramp curb when he tried to leave the freeway at Fairway Drive. He was treated at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina for minor injuries.

In the car, deputies said, they found a Baskin-Robbins money bag containing about $300. They also found a toy replica of a Colt .45 handgun, as well as the panties and what Smith described only as “articles of clothing used by the suspect in robberies.”

Smith said deputies noted “several similarities” between the Sunday night holdup and those committed by the “Underwear Bandit,” who has struck stores and small businesses, such as beauty shops, during the past two months.

Witnesses in the previous robberies have reported that after ordering women to remove their undergarments at gunpoint, the “Underwear Bandit” has performed sexual acts with the underwear before fleeing with the garments and cash.

Lyons was booked at the Walnut Sheriff’s Station on suspicion of robbery. Bail was set at $100,000.