Bank Robber Strikes 3 Times in Half-Hour

Police recall only a handful of bank robberies in the area during all of last year. Then on Wednesday, there were three.

“But it’s one guy that is doing this,” said Lt. Tim Stehr of the Burbank Police Department. “It’s not like it’s three separate robbers.”

The robberies occurred within half an hour, not more than a mile apart. In each case, the man drew a handgun and demanded money, Stehr said.

In the first holdup, at 11:02 a.m., the man approached a teller at a Downey Savings branch in a Ralphs supermarket on Victory Boulevard. Sixteen minutes later, a Fidelity Federal Bank on San Fernando Road was robbed. And eight minutes later, the robber held up a First Coastal Bank on Glenoaks Boulevard. Police would not say how much money was taken.

“Three in one day is extremely high for us,” said Stehr, who said the city had about five bank robberies last year.

As police investigated one of the holdups, police arrested a man who attempted to steal a car in an area crawling with police officers, said Sgt. Robert Quesada. Police momentarily thought they had the bank robber, he said, but the car theft and bank robberies proved to be unrelated.