Masked man robs Costa Mesa bank

A Costa Mesa man who allegedly held up the First Bank & Trust on Harbor Boulevard on Thursday morning is expected to be charged with armed bank robbery in federal court today.

Michael S. Kelly, 48, was arrested just after 10 a.m. Thursday by Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa police officers in the Costco parking lot in the 17900 block of Newhope Street at Talbert Avenue after he allegedly made off with an undisclosed sum of cash from the Costa Mesa bank, police said.

The bank robber was wearing a Halloween mask from the movie “Scream” and a black hooded sweatshirt when he entered the bank, brandished a toy gun and pulled a “takeover style” robbery, Sgt. Marty Carver said. Before he fled the scene, police said the robber ordered everyone in the bank to the ground and took cash from two tellers. No injuries were reported.

A bank teller called the police at 9:21 a.m. to report the robbery. Costa Mesa Police immediately issued an alert giving a description of the robber and his car to all agencies in the county.

Kelly was arrested in Fountain Valley after police identified the car, Carver said.

Kelly served time in federal prison on the East Coast for bank robbery in the 1980s, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

If convicted, Kelly faces up to 25 years in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines. Despite his use of a toy gun, the federal criminal code stipulates he can be tried as if he were armed. When a real gun is used, more time could be tacked onto a person’s sentence if convicted, Eimiller said.