Fired JPL Engineer Arrested in ‘Large Marge’ Robberies : Crime: Woman who lost job after co-worker’s checkbook was stolen pleads not guilty in Monrovia bank holdup. She may be charged in five other cases.

A Glendale woman was in custody Friday on suspicion of being “Large Marge,” a robber who made off with more than $10,000 in six San Gabriel Valley bank holdups since June, authorities said.

Deborah Boese, 29, who authorities believe turned to robbery after losing her job at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, was charged Friday with one felony count of robbery. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in Los Angeles federal court.

The FBI said the robber’s nickname was based on descriptions provided to investigators by bank tellers. Glendale police said some tellers were uncertain about the robber’s gender because she never spoke during the robbery.

“I don’t think we were always on the track for a male per se,” FBI spokesman Steven Berry said. The suspect was “described as a large-framed and large in stature female with masculine features,” Berry said.

Only about 5% of all bank robbery suspects are female, he said.

Investigators said they have connected Boese with a series of bank robberies between June 26 and July 22. The robberies occurred at two Bank of America bank branches in Glendale, a Sanwa Bank branch in Glendale, an unidentified San Gabriel bank, a First Interstate Bank office in Monrovia and a Bank of America branch in Temple City.

Deputy Public Defender Pedro Castillo, appointed to represent Boese, could not be reached for comment.

Boese was charged only with the Monrovia robbery. “She admitted to having robbed five other banks in addition to that one,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Chris Tayback. The rest of the case will be brought before a federal grand jury, he said.

In each case, a heavily made-up robber wore sunglasses, a white, long-sleeve, V-neck shirt and a light blue baseball cap, said Glendale Police Investigator Tom Kuh, who arrested Boese on Thursday afternoon after the Monrovia robbery. Those items--along with a BB pistol resembling a .45-caliber semiautomatic--were recovered in a red gym bag found in Boese’s car, Kuh said.

The robber handed tellers computer-printed notes, which read: “Give me $25,000--hundreds, fifties and twenties. I have a gun. I will use it.”

The BB pistol was believed to have been strapped to her waist, although tellers never reported seeing a weapon, police said.

Based on an interview with Boese, Kuh said he believes that she was driven to robbery when she lost her job as an engineer at JPL after she allegedly stole a co-worker’s checkbook, wrote a $500 check and cashed it at a Bank of America in Glendale.

JPL officials confirmed Friday that Boese was formally fired last week, but declined to elaborate on the cause or on whether any suspension or other action had been taken against her earlier.

Nearly $3,000 allegedly stolen from two banks was recovered from Boese’s apartment in the 300 block of North Kenwood Street, the investigator said.

She told Kuh that she originally had planned to take all the cash from the Monrovia bank’s vault Thursday by going into the building and asking to speak to the manager. But when she was told that the manager was busy on the phone, she decided to go back to her car, put on her outfit and just rob a teller, the investigator said.

After taking the cash, the robber set off an alarm by walking through a door not accessible to the public.

“She said, ‘At that point, I knew my time was up,’ ” Kuh said.

A witness was able to jot down the license plate of the robber’s car, which Monrovia officers traced to Boese.