Suspected Robbers Take Their Infant on a Wild Ride

Two suspected bank robbers led Brea police on a high-speed chase along city streets and a freeway Friday with their 7-month-old daughter unbuckled in the back seat, police said.

“We arrested them with money and a gun in the car,” Brea Police spokesman Lt. Martin Needham said.

The incident began about 4:45 p.m., when a 34-year-old man walked into the Wells Fargo bank on North Brea Boulevard and held up a teller with a gun, Needham said. After being given an unspecified amount of money, the man got into a rented sport utility vehicle driven by his 21-year-old wife, who led police on a 10-minute chase through Brea, Fullerton and Placentia at speeds up to 95 mph.

The chase ended at an apartment complex in Brea, where the couple -- identified as Robert Lewis Bandy and Teffany Tanee Crain of Garden Grove -- were arrested without incident.

Only then did officers discover the baby, who was not in a car seat.

The couple also is suspected in a La Habra bank robbery earlier Friday, Needham said. Their daughter, who was not injured, was placed in protective custody at Orange County’s emergency shelter for children.