Suspect in Whitewashed Bandit robberies charged in Irvine bank heist
Authorities have arrested and charged a man suspected of being the Whitewashed Bandit, sought in the robberies of banks in Irvine and elsewhere.
Brian Lee Bellman, 35, of Bakersfield was taken into custody Wednesday evening in Covina by members of the FBI’s Bank Robbery Apprehension Team in Orange County and was held overnight in Santa Ana, said Ari DeKofsky, FBI public affairs specialist.
Bellman has been charged in a Feb. 16 robbery at an East West Bank branch at 5402 Walnut Ave. in Irvine, DeKofsky said. The FBI is investigating whether Bellman may be responsible for four additional robberies in other Southern California cities.
According to court documents, $5,205 was stolen from the East West Bank using “force and intimidation.”
A federal complaint says the robber, clad in a white long-sleeved shirt and a white fedora-style hat, told the manager: “Large bills, give me the money! ... No funny business! That’s not enough! Open the second drawer!”
The robber was carrying a gun but didn’t fire it, authorities said. No injuries were reported.
According to the complaint, Bellman was linked to the robbery using surveillance footage that showed the license plate on a Subaru Impreza the robber fled in. The vehicle’s registered address is the same as an address in Clarksburg, W. Va., that is associated with Bellman, according to an FBI investigator’s affidavit.
Investigators also reviewed footage from a Walmart store in Orange, where someone who authorities later discovered was acquainted with Bellman helped purchase two pellet guns similar to one used in robberies Feb. 16 of the Irvine bank and a Union Bank in Anaheim.
Bellman was positively identified by witnesses in a photo lineup, according to the affidavit.
Authorities also are investigating a possible link between the Whitewashed Bandit and the Gone Plaid Bandit, DeKofsky said. The Gone Plaid Bandit is wanted in at least a dozen robberies over three years and last struck in 2013, the Orange County Register has reported.
DeKofsky said police departments in Irvine, Brea, Anaheim, Covina and Bakersfield, as well as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, participated in the investigation of the Whitewashed Bandit robberies.