Thousand Oaks Bank Robbed Again

For the second time this year, a busy Bank of America branch was held up by three unarmed, masked men who screamed at everyone to get on the floor before they cleaned out all four teller stations, authorities said.

The late-morning takeover robbery occurred at 152 West Hillcrest Drive, a popular branch located in a parking lot between The Oaks shopping mall and the Janss Marketplace across the street, authorities said.

“It is unusual,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Det. Debbie DeMattia said of the lack of weapons in the robbery. “Regardless, these bank employees are trained to listen and [follow the robbers’ commands] no matter what.”

No one was injured and one suspect was captured after a two-hour manhunt that spanned the city’s west side and included dozens of deputies, a helicopter, a police dog and a bank customer who followed the thieves.

By Friday night, no connection had been made between the most recent heist and a robbery at the branch Feb. 11. In both cases, the robberies were takeovers involving a trio of thieves who were unarmed and masked.

Even if no connection is made, authorities said, Thousand Oaks has become a hot spot for bank robbers this year, particularly by thieves from outside the county who like the city’s easy freeway access.

Friday’s holdup marked the sixth bank robbery in Thousand Oaks this year and the 15th in the county since Jan. 1, said David Nesbitt, supervisor of the Ventura FBI office.

The number of bank robberies through Friday has surpassed the total of 12 reported countywide in 1999, Nesbitt said. Regardless, bank robberies are down dramatically since 52 were logged in 1996.

“It sounds like we’ve got a spike this year for some reason, but I can’t imagine anything like we’ve had in years past,” Nesbitt said. “We’re not terribly concerned, but if we already had 25 or so we’d have reason to be alarmed.”

On Friday, the robbers rushed into the bank about 11:15 a.m., yelled at a dozen employees and customers to “Get down!” while two of the robbers stole an undetermined amount of cash and a cell phone from one customer, authorities said.

The men fled in a stolen Cadillac, according to Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Morris. A customer followed the robbers in his vehicle east on Hillcrest Drive and allegedly watched them switch vehicles near a Pier One Imports store, Morris said.

The customer, who authorities would not name, then followed the men as they drove off in a two-tone minivan. The customer lost sight of the van near the Ventura Freeway and Ventu Park Road, where he stopped to call deputies from a pay phone outside an electronics store, authorities said.

An hour after the robbery, detectives found the getaway van abandoned in the parking lot of a former Home Depot store in the 500 block of North Ventu Park Road, Morris said.

About 1:30 p.m., a Los Angeles man matching one of the suspects’ descriptions was arrested while walking west on Hillcrest Drive near Rancho Conejo Road, Morris said.

Although authorities do not have complete descriptions of the suspects--that will come after FBI agents review bank surveillance tapes--the man arrested, Kumasi Yohance Dennis, 22, was allegedly carrying the stolen cellular telephone and wearing dark clothes similar to what the robbers were wearing, authorities said.

Dennis was being interviewed by detectives Friday night and was expected to be booked into County Jail in Ventura on suspicion of robbery.

During the manhunt, a helicopter buzzed overhead for several hours and traffic was backed up briefly near the interchange of the Ventura Freeway and California 23 when deputies stopped a vehicle and detained the occupants at gunpoint. They were later released.