POLICE FILES - Nov. 16, 2000

Tariq Malik

Police have five Los Angeles men in custody after foiling their

attempt to rob a bank in Huntington Beach last week.

Police arrested Michael Perry, 26; Michael Caraballo, 25; Jose

Mariscal, 24; Demarco Chafford, 24; and Carlton Grim, 27, in connection

with the attempted robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank in the 6900 block of

Bolsa Avenue at 11:05 a.m. Nov. 6. Bail is set at $50,000 for each of

them, police said.

A resident reported two suspicious men walking from a Mercury Tracer

toward the bank, said Lt. Luis Ochoa of the Huntington Beach Police

Department.

Police confronted the men, who they identified as Perry and Caraballo,

as they exited the bank, recovered a semiautomatic handgun they were

carrying and stopped the robbery attempt, police said.

Mariscal was found in a second vehicle, an Isuzu sport utility vehicle

reported stolen from Los Angeles County, waiting in the Westminster Mall

parking lot, police said. Chafford and Grim were caught by the California

Highway Patrol in the Mercury Tracer, driving on the San Diego freeway,

reports show.

A witness identified the men as the would-be robbers, police said.

Ochoa said Huntington Beach detectives, as well as the FBI, continue

to investigate the robbery attempt.