HUNTINGTON BEACH : Police Detain Wrong Man in Robbery

Shortly after a Household Bank branch was robbed Friday afternoon, a police officer spotted a man matching the description of the suspect. Thinking he had his man, the officer detained him at gunpoint.

But it turns out it was the wrong man.

“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Lt. Jeff Cope said of the man, who just happened to be walking in the area of Beach Boulevard and Garfield Avenue about the same time as the robbery.

“It’s unfortunate that a good citizen got exposed to something like this, but he was very cooperative,” Cope said. “He has been eliminated as a suspect.”

The incident began shortly after 3 p.m. when a man walked into the bank in the 19000 block of Beach Boulevard and handed a teller a note demanding money.

“The man said he was armed and the teller gave him money,” Cope said. “The suspect then left the bank.”

A police officer who was across the street saw a man he thought was the robber and detained him, Cope said.

The bank robber was described as white, 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, with light brown, short hair. He was wearing a striped button-down shirt over a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a white baseball cap, Cope said.

The robber remained at large. There were no injuries during the holdup.