2 Women Robbed at Teller Machines

Two women were robbed at gunpoint Friday as they withdrew cash from automated teller machines in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana, police said. In each case, the victim said the robber was an armed woman.

Police said they believe the two incidents may be related to two other robberies earlier this week, each involving an armed woman who held up customers withdrawing cash from teller machines in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

On Friday, the first incident occurred around 1:40 p.m. in Costa Mesa as a 55-year-old woman was withdrawing $100 from the machine at the East 17th Street branch of Security Pacific Bank. Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Neil Leveratt said a woman brandishing a handgun snatched the cash and demanded that the victim withdraw $180 more. After the machine would not process that transaction, the robber fled, jumping into a waiting red Chevrolet Chevette, Leveratt said.

Less than an hour later, a 42-year-old Dana Point woman was robbed as she was withdrawing $60 from the machine outside the Home Federal Bank branch at Bristol Street and MacArthur Boulevard in Santa Ana.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Earl Porter said a female robber stuck “a hard object” in the victim’s back and told her that she had a gun. She ordered the victim to withdraw $100 more, then grabbed the cash and fled.

Earlier this week, police reported that an armed woman staged two similar robberies in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Leveratt said, “We don’t get many of these too often,” meaning cases in which “women are the robbers.”