4 Banks Hit in String of Unrelated Heists

While holiday shoppers were occupied at the malls Friday, bank robbers were busy too, hitting four Orange County banks in the span of a few hours.

In apparently unrelated incidents, police said, banks in Laguna Niguel, Newport Beach, Brea and Costa Mesa were held up.

The first incident occurred about 11 a.m., when two men walked into the Cal Fed branch at 2700 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa, ordered employees and customers to the floor, jumped over the counters and took more than $8,000 from the tellers’ drawers.

“We found a car just down the street that we believe was the vehicle involved in the robbery,” said Lt. Les Gogerty, a spokesman for the Costa Mesa Police Department. “It was stolen.”

Less than 15 minutes later in Brea, a man with shaggy white hair and sporting a baseball cap pulled a handgun at the Pacific Western National Bank at 786 N. Brea Blvd. and demanded money from a teller. He walked away with about $500, authorities said.

At 1:30 p.m., a man talking on a cell phone walked into the Wells Fargo Bank at 2750 W. Coast Highway in Newport Beach. After waiting several minutes, police said, he handed a note to a teller demanding money and got away with an undisclosed amount.

And at 5:15 p.m., a man wearing a floppy khaki cap entered the World Savings Bank at 28211 Crown Valley Parkway in Laguna Niguel, told a teller he had a gun and made off with about $2,000. The teller later said she saw no weapon, and a sheriff’s spokesman says the robber fits the description of a man wanted in connection with several other bank heists in the area.

“We’re asking for the public’s help in identifying him,” Lt. Steve Fauchier said.