Suspected Bank Robbers Elude Police

Despite being at a North Ventura Road bank Tuesday as it was being robbed by two armed bandits, a pair of Port Hueneme police detectives were unable to nab the suspected crooks.

The two bank robbers are believed to be the same bandits who struck a bank in Oxnard last week.

The men walked into the Home Savings branch at 2671 N. Ventura Road in Port Hueneme just before 4 p.m., said Supervising Agent Gary Auer in the Ventura office of the FBI.

While one man watched the door, the other approached a teller, passed a demand note and then placed a handgun on the counter.

After the teller handed over the money, the men ran out of the bank and headed in different directions.

Seconds after the men left the bank, Det. Anthony Paradis walked through the same door and was told by a bank employee that a robbery had occurred, police said. Paradis returned outside and confronted one suspected robber at gunpoint, ordering him to the ground.

Meanwhile, another detective who had been in a back room of the bank viewing videotape from an earlier incident heard the commotion outside and ran to assist.

The suspect, however, escaped and zigzagged through heavy traffic on Ventura Road, with the detectives giving chase. The foot pursuit went through several residential yards during a heavy downpour until the detectives lost sight of the man in the rain.

A yard-to-yard search of the 1300 block of Kamala Street with two police dogs over the next several hours proved unsuccessful.

Police later were told by eyewitnesses that the second armed robber had been standing behind both detectives while they had his partner lying on the ground.

Both robbers were described by witnesses as Latino men about 20 years old. One was said to be 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 150 pounds with short dark hair and a dark complexion. The other man was described as 5-feet-6 and about 140 pounds, with a goatee.

The two men are believed to be the same pair who robbed a Santa Barbara Bank and Trust a week ago at 2385 N. Oxnard Blvd. in Oxnard, Auer said.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call police at 986-6534.