Suspected Fake-Beard Bank Bandit Nabbed : Crime: He is captured after $13,500 holdup of Huntington Beach bank. Police say he may be linked to 30 robberies.

A man suspected of more than 30 bank robberies in Orange and Los Angeles counties, usually wearing a fake beard and mustache and a baseball cap, was arrested Friday after robbing a bank at gunpoint, FBI officials said.

John Maynard Hearn, 37, of Santa Monica, who authorities think is the “fake beard bandit,” was arrested at 11:30 a.m. after robbing Union Bank in Huntington Beach at 11 a.m., FBI Special Investigator Gary Morley said.

The robber, wearing a fake beard and mustache and baseball cap, showed a teller the handgun in his waistband and a note demanding money, said Huntington Beach Police Department Lt. Luis Ochoa.

The teller got money from other tellers and gave him $13,500 in cash, which he stuffed into a black vinyl bag, Ochoa said. He drove from the parking lot in a white sedan, followed by a witness who was in the bank. The witness called police with a description of the car.

At about 11:30 a.m., Los Alamitos Officer Dave Stauffer saw the car going north on the San Gabriel River Freeway in Hawaiian Gardens. He followed and arrested Hearn in the parking lot of Hawaiian Gardens City Hall, said Huntington Beach Sgt. Ron Lesovsky.

Hearn is suspected of robbing a Mission Viejo bank earlier this week of $6,900, again in disguise, police said. He also is suspected of other robberies in Laguna Hills, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, San Clemente, Lake Forest, Cypress, Garden Grove and Villa Park, in addition to San Diego and Texas, starting in 1986, police and Morley said.

Hearn is being held at Huntington Beach City jail, and bail is set at $50,000.