Anaheim : Decoy Operation Nets Two Robbery Suspects
A police decoy operation Wednesday resulted in the arrest of two suspects in a series of hit-and-run bank bag robberies, authorities said.
Charles A. Akai and Robert D. Tavares, both 19 and both of Anaheim, were seized as they attempted to steal a bank bag carried into a savings and loan firm by an officer posing as a merchant making a deposit, Anaheim police said.
Lt. Jack Parra said Akai and Tavares are suspected of two recent holdups of people entering or leaving the West Ball Road branch of Sumitomo Bank and had been under surveillance for two days.
On Wednesday, according to Parra, the two men were trailed to a Home Savings of America office on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park, where police set a trap.
Carrying a bank bag filled with scrap paper and a single dollar bill and using a borrowed crutch, Parra said, Sgt. Ron Good posed as a merchant making a deposit.
As Good hobbled toward the door, Tavares ran up, grabbed the bag and sprinted to a nearby parked truck where Akai was waiting, Parra said.
As the pair tried to drive away, they were surrounded by Anaheim and Buena Park police units. They were jailed on suspicion of robbery and were being held on $50,000 bail each.
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