Local News in Brief : 2 Seized, Suspected in Series of Ventura County Bank Holdups

Two Oxnard men who were arrested on suspicion of robbing a Calabasas bank of $2,300 will be arraigned today before a federal magistrate on charges they robbed eight banks during August from Calabasas to Ventura, a spokesman for the FBI said Thursday.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies captured the men in Agoura Hills after a brief car chase Wednesday afternoon.

“We think they may be good for eight robberies, but the investigation is continuing,” FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said.

Held at the Malibu sheriff’s substation Thursday on suspicion of robbery were Steven Reynoso, 31, and Richard Bustamente, 43.

Reynoso presented a note demanding money to a teller at a branch of Great Western Savings on Calabasas Road about 3:30 p.m., Sgt. Kent Scholten said.

The pair sped west on the Ventura Freeway after leaving the bank, he said. Bank officials alerted authorities about the robbery and a deputy on patrol spotted the suspects’ car on the freeway.

The deputy followed the car as it left the freeway at Cheseboro Road and drove north to Driver Avenue in Agoura Hills, Scholten said.

Bustamente surrendered at the scene but Reynoso fled into the brush, Scholten said. Deputies, with the assistance of a sheriff’s canine unit and a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter, arrested Reynoso shortly after 4 p.m., the sheriff’s spokesman said.

Reagan said the two men matched the descriptions of suspects given by witnesses to seven other recent bank robberies.

In addition to Wednesday’s robbery, the FBI listed the banks allegedly hit by the pair as Barclays Bank in Ventura on Aug. 8; Camarillo Community Bank, Aug. 13; Bank of America in Newbury Park, Aug. 18; Santa Barbara Savings & Loan in Camarillo, Aug. 20; Security Pacific Bank in Agoura, Aug. 21; Sears Savings Bank in Westlake Village, Saturday, and County Savings Bank in Camarillo on Monday.