CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / CYPRESS

Two men who allegedly bumped their car into the vehicles of elderly people and robbed them while they were exchanging information were being held in Orange County jail Thursday as police tried to determine if they had been involved in other crimes.

Cypress police said they were investigating whether the men arrested Wednesday -- Ivory Joe Taylor, 43, and Henry James Dotson Jr., 46 -- were the robbers dubbed the “bump and rob” bandits, who committed similar crimes in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Cypress Police Sgt. Tom Bruce said that his department logged at least three such crimes recently and that the Seal Beach Police Department has reported similar cases.

“We don’t know how many they were responsible for,” Bruce said. “They obviously were successful when they first started it, and obviously that’s why they kept going.”

Taylor was being held on $250,000 bail and Dotson was being held on $100,000 bail, the Orange County sheriff’s website said.

Bruce said the accidents tended to involve minor bumps to the rear ends of the cars of elderly people. He said the men probably targeted the elderly assuming they carried a lot of cash and did not pay much attention to where they put their wallets. Police are still investigating whether other people were involved in the crimes.

-- Jia-Rui Chong