O.C. Bank Robber Suspected in Other Holdups

An armed man wearing a fake beard and mustache and a baseball cap, who may be a suspect in numerous South County and San Diego County holdups, robbed a Mission Viejo bank Wednesday of $6,900, authorities said.

A 4:20 p.m., the man walked into the Wells Fargo Bank at 25276 Marguerite Parkway, gave a note to a teller and revealed a gun, said sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez.

The man then demanded cash in large bills, which he stuffed into a bag he was carrying, Mendez said, and walked out of the bank. No shots were fired, and no one in the bank was injured.

Witnesses told police the man was in his late 20s to 30s, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds. He wore sunglasses and a blue, black and white lightweight jacket, Mendez said.

Mendez said authorities think the man may be the “fake beard bandit,” suspected of 33 bank robberies in South County, San Diego and Texas, starting in 1986. The last robbery committed by someone by the same description took place in Laguna Niguel in 1992.