Bandit hits two O.C. bank branches within an hour
Daily News Wire Service
Updated: 12/04/2008 05:10:10 PM PST
ALISO VIEJO — The so-called Empty Pockets bandit pulled off two armed robberies in Orange County Thursday afternoon, a sheriff’s official said.
The suspect displayed a gun during a 2 p.m. heist at a Citibank branch at 31872 Del Obispo St. in San Juan Capistrano, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Less than an hour later, the bandit struck a Downey Savings office inside a Ralphs supermarket at 26901 Aliso Creek Road in Aliso Viejo, Amormino said.
The Empty Pockets bandit earned his name because two attempts to pull off hold-ups on Nov. 26 and Dec. 4 had failed.
The first botched attempt was when he tried to rob a Washington Mutual branch in Mission Viejo, Amormino said, and the second was at a Bank of America branch in Aliso Viejo.
The suspect escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash Wednesday from a Bank of America branch inside an Albertsons supermarket at 30241 Golden Lantern in Laguna Niguel, Amormino said. That heist marked the first time the robber had displayed a gun to a teller, instead of demand notes.
Investigators released surveillance photos of the man, who is in his late 30s to early 40s, 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. Amormino said the bandit may be a mix of white and Filipino, and a witness heard him speaking Filipino on the phone.
The suspect should be considered armed and dangerous, Amormino said.
Anyone with information about the suspect was urged to call the Orange County Sheriff’s
