Bank Customer Chases, Seizes Robbery Suspect in Huntington Beach

A bank customer who witnessed a robbery Thursday chased and later captured the bandit, police said.

“I was not going to let this guy get away so easily,” said Thomas Wayne Dempsey, a 28-year-old masonry contractor. “I hate thieves.”

Dempsey followed the bandit out of the bank, chased him about 500 yards and held him until police arrived.

John Allen Wagner, 22, of Garden Grove, was arrested on suspicion of bank robbery.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. Roger Parker said the incident began about 10 a.m. at the American Savings Bank in the 7800 block of Edinger Avenue when the suspect presented a note to a teller demanding money.

The teller handed over more than $500 in cash and the suspect left, Parker said.

Dempsey then stepped up to the same teller’s window. “I was surprised at how quickly he got through (with his transaction),” Dempsey said. “But when I went over, (the teller) said, ‘Hey, I’ve just been robbed.’ ”

Dempsey said he became furious. “I ran out of the bank and yelled at him to stop.”

As he dashed after the bandit, Dempsey said the teller told him to stop because the bandit had claimed to have a gun.

“I knew if he had a gun then, he would have shot me,” Dempsey said. “But instead he ran. I ran after him.”

Greg Panster, one of Dempsey’s employees who was waiting outside, joined the chase.

The two pursued the suspect about 500 yards into the parking lot of an apartment complex.

There, Dempsey said, he and his friend trapped the bandit against a fence. “He tried to jump over the fence, but I swung at him,” Dempsey said. “I told him: ‘You’re not going anywhere.’

“He was scared. He said, ‘I’m not going to move.’ ”

Dempsey said he and Panster yelled to a resident of the apartment complex to call police.

Parker said an off-duty officer who resides at the apartments held the suspect at gunpoint until other officers could arrive.

“I think they should give us a reward for catching him,” Dempsey said. But then he paused and said, “No, catching him is a good reward. That is enough. I would have been really upset if he had gotten away.”