2 East County Banks and a Ventura Business Robbed

Authorities are searching for a man who committed Simi Valley’s first bank robbery of the year Friday and another who held up a Thousand Oaks bank a few hours later.

In a third incident Friday, four males fled with an undisclosed amount of cash after holding up a Ventura storage facility.

Gary Auer, supervisor of the FBI’s Ventura office, said a white man 18 to 26 years old walked into the Wells Fargo Bank at 1200 Los Angeles Ave. in Simi Valley at 1:32 p.m. and handed the teller a note that read: “I have somebody watching you. Give me the money.”

The teller handed him an undisclosed amount of cash, which he placed in a canvas bag before fleeing through the bank’s north door, according to Auer.

Authorities are looking for a 6-foot-tall man of medium build, weighing approximately 175 pounds.

He was wearing a two-tone baseball cap and a green top, a white long-sleeve shirt, beige pants, multicolored tennis shoes and a cushioned neck brace, authorities said. The man also is said to have had an inch-square bandage on one cheek.

The robber did not show or claim to have a weapon, Auer said.

Another man robbed the Home Savings Bank at 148 W. Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks on Friday.

Authorities said the man walked into the bank at 4:05 p.m. and handed a teller a note stating he had a gun. No weapon was displayed, Auer said.

The teller placed an undisclosed amount of cash in a black shirt the man was using as a money bag, authorities said.

The robber fled through the bank’s front door and walked toward Strouds department store when a die pack hidden with the money exploded.

Authorities are looking for a white male about age 20, 5 feet 9, about 155 pounds, with a blond buzz cut. The man was wearing dark sunglasses, a short-sleeved blue and white horizontally striped shirt, blue denim pants and a straw hat.

The two incidents mark the 20th and 21st bank robberies in Ventura County this year, including six in Thousand Oaks, he said.

Auer said there were 52 bank robberies in Ventura County in 1996.

In the third incident, Ventura Sgt. John Garner said his department is looking for one black and three Latino males who allegedly held up the office manager of the Footlocker storage facility at 3700 Market St. at 4:36 p.m.

One displayed a gun in the Friday afternoon incident, he said.

The men, all wearing Halloween masks, were last seen fleeing on foot east on Market Street, Garner said.