Suspects Elude Deputies After Credit Union, Bank Robbed

Sheriff’s deputies searched on the ground and by air but were unable to locate five men involved in two armed robberies Saturday at financial institutions in Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

The robberies of Wescom Credit Union at 3609 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., in Thousand Oaks and Bank of America at 2400 Ponderosa Drive in Camarillo bring to 11 the number of bank robberies this year and the second and third in two days, according to officials.

The first robbery Saturday occurred at 9:10 a.m., just after employees at the credit union opened for business, when men wearing dark clothing and ski masks entered the building, rounded up the tellers and ordered them to empty the crash drawers, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Senior Deputy Ed Tumbleson.

Two of the men brandished handguns, he said.

After taking the cash, the suspects fled in a green metallic-colored car waiting behind a nearby restaurant, he said. A driver was waiting in the car, Tumbleson said.

None of the 13 employees or the one customer in the bank at the time was injured.

Deputies arrived three minutes after the robbery, but the suspects were gone. The search by ground and air continued for an hour, according to Tumbleson.

The second robbery occurred at 1:53 p.m. Saturday at the Bank of America branch at 2400 Ponderosa Drive in Camarillo.

Authorities said the gunman--described as a white man in his early 40s, 5 foot 11 and 160 pounds with brown curly hair and green eyes--handed a note to a teller demanding money.

Witnesses said the man was wearing a straw cowboy hat, dark sunglasses, a faded blue shirt and blue jeans and had a black handgun tucked in his waistband, deputies said.

The teller handed over an undetermined amount of cash and the suspect fled on foot, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

Deputies searched a nearby residential area with help from a Sheriff’s Department helicopter. However, the suspect had not been located as of late Saturday, authorities said.

On Friday, a man wearing a ski mask used a small silver handgun to rob American Savings Bank at 1800 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura. The suspect, who fled on foot, is wanted in three other bank robberies in Ventura County since early December, an FBI official said.