Stolen Car Used in Bank Heist Found

A stolen car used during a bank robbery Monday in Ventura has been found abandoned in the parking lot of an Oxnard financial center, authorities said Tuesday.

The discovery of the white 1999 Chevrolet Malibu, though, has provided no clues toward suspects, said David Nesbitt supervisor of the FBI office in Ventura.

The car was found about 4:30 p.m. Monday, seven hours after it was used as the getaway vehicle in an armed robbery at a Washington Mutual branch on South Victoria Avenue, Nesbitt said.

A person who heard a radio news report describing the car phoned authorities and said a vehicle matching the description was parked at 300 Esplanade Drive in Oxnard, Nesbitt said.

Nothing was found inside the car, but federal agents impounded it and Oxnard police were dusting it for fingerprints Tuesday, Nesbitt said. He said the robbers wore gloves during the holdup.

The car was stolen early Monday from Los Angeles International Airport, Nesbitt said. The robbers fitted the car with stolen Auto Nation Dealership plates.

Authorities believe the three bank robbers had a second car waiting at the financial center’s parking lot, Nesbitt said.

He said agents were investigating the possibility that the three men were also responsible for an armed holdup June 9 at an American Commercial Bank branch in Camarillo.

“The MO leads us to believe” there may be a connection, Nesbitt said.

In both cases, two robbers wearing hoods, masks or sunglasses and armed with semiautomatic handguns robbed a bank and then fled in a stolen getaway car driven by a third man, Nesbitt said.