Police Holding a Lien Against Bank Robberies

Banks are no strangers to liens, but then Lien is no stranger to banks, according to police.

A man they identified as Steven D. Lien, 31, a transient, was arrested in Santa Ana Monday afternoon on suspicion of holding up the American Savings & Loan branch in Garden Grove minutes earlier.

Garden Grove Police Lt. Chuck Gibbs said Lien is suspected of pulling at least 12 similar holdups in Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana “and maybe some other cities.”

Police said Lien wasn’t the first robber to visit that particular branch Monday. A young man beat him there by 2 1/2 hours and got away with almost twice as much money, officers said.

The first man gave a teller the usual holdup note, ran outside and was enveloped in a red mist--the dye in the exploding money pack that is routinely issued by tellers to robbers. But the man still managed to run away with the loot, reported to be $1,350, police said.

Things had calmed down when at 2:25 p.m. a man police identified as Lien rode up in a taxi, asked the driver to wait while he made a deposit and went inside to hand another teller another note, police said.

He received $758 (with no dye pack), calmly got into Yellow Cab No. 32 and drove off, police said.

Many Witnesses

Officers said they knew it was Yellow Cab No. 32 because so many people saw and remembered that number displayed on the taxi as it pulled away.

It was broadcast over police radio frequencies and caught the attention of Huntington Beach Officer Dennis Dalhke, who was returning from a court appearance in Santa Ana.

When Dalhke spotted No. 32 at Pacific Avenue and Pine Street in Santa Ana and pulled it over, it still contained the robber and all of the loot, police said.

Lien was being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.