Total of $4,500 Taken : Suspect Arrested in 1 of 3 Bank Heists

About $4,500 was taken in three unrelated bank robberies Friday, and a North Park man was arrested in one of the holdups, San Diego police said.

Gustavo Gonzales, 27, of the 3700 block of Grim Avenue, was held on suspicion of robbing the Glendale Federal Bank at 5980 El Cajon Blvd., police said. The robbery occurred about 11:30 a.m. when the robber handed a note to a teller, who turned over $371 in booby-trapped cash.

As the robber left the bank, carrying the money in a camera bag, a dye pack exploded inside the bag and began spewing red smoke. That caught the eye of Thomas Schultheis, an off-duty campus police lieutenant from San Diego State University, who followed Gonzales a few blocks to the 5900 block of Madison Avenue, where he held the man until police arrived.

Spokesman Bill Robinson said police believe the robbery was the 10th in a series committed by Gonzales since November.

Gonzales was turned over to FBI officials, who are expected to charge him with 10 counts of bank robbery. He was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown.

About an hour and a half after the Glendale robbery, a man walked into the Bank of America at 3101 University Ave., fired a shotgun over a teller’s head and made off with $1,300, police said. No one was injured.

The man, described as white, in his late 20s, about 6 feet tall and 185 pounds, escaped in a metallic blue Chevrolet Celebrity. He was wearing a blue baseball cap and had a female passenger in the getaway car. Police said he robbed the same bank Jan. 11.

Another Bank of America, at 645 Beyer Way in San Ysidro, was robbed Friday when a man handed a note to a teller and put his hand inside his black leather jacket to indicate he had a weapon. He got away with $2,863, which he placed in a brown shaving kit, police said.

That robber was described as in his early 20s; 5 feet, 6 inches tall; 130 pounds; with sandy-brown, shoulder-length hair and hazel eyes.