Close to the Action

When Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn moved into a south Oxnard office this summer, he hoped to bring his staff closer to residents in one of this city’s roughest neighborhoods.

Monday morning, the neighborhood got a little too close for comfort.

Three armed robbers held up the California Federal Bank building that houses the supervisor’s new office, startling staff members, who pulled Flynn out of a meeting in Ventura.

No one was hurt and two robbery suspects were later arrested in Thousand Oaks; three others are still being sought in connection with the robbery.

The holdup sent shudders through Flynn’s second-floor office. “Today was very unsettling,” Flynn said Monday afternoon, after asking sheriff’s deputies to make sure that his wooden office door locks properly. “But it’s not the first bank robbery in Oxnard or Ventura County.”

Although this was the first time Flynn aides have been so close to a holdup, the Cal Fed branch on Saviers Road is no stranger to robbers in ski masks. Police say the bank was held up three times in 1996.

Finding solutions to south Oxnard’s high crime rate was one of Flynn’s goals when he cleared out his office at the County Government Center in Ventura earlier this year. Being in the neighborhood is important, Flynn says, because he is heavily involved in a new $4.5-million south Oxnard anti-gang program.

The six-term supervisor was at a meeting at the County Government Center, and assistants Catherine Serros-Myers and Elizabeth Montigo were in Flynn’s office when robbers waving pistols entered the bank about 9 a.m. The Flynn staffers learned of the robbery when Serros-Myers headed out on business. As she stepped off the elevator on the first floor, she was met by police officers who told her to go back upstairs because there had been a robbery.

Shaken, Serros-Myers called Flynn at his meeting and asked him to come to the scene. Flynn had to wait outside as police dusted for fingerprints.

Flynn acknowledged that he has some concerns about the safety of staff members, who say drifters sometimes pass through the hallway outside their new office.

After Monday’s robbery, the supervisor is considering locking the office door and screening visitors with an intercom system. “You can’t help but be concerned,” Flynn said. “But we’re not going to let the robbers take over.”

Times staff writer Scott Hadly contributed to this report.