Bank Robberies Orange County

A bank branch was robbed here Wednesday, the seventh in a string of robberies to hit South County banks in the last month. County sheriff's officials said no one was injured in the 12:22 p.m. robbery of the National Bank of Southern California, 22831 Lake Forest Drive. The robber, a man dressed in a denim jacket and jeans, handed a teller a note demanding cash.

A police officer shot and killed a bank robbery suspect Monday after the man, with two accomplices, led police on a chase across the middle of the county, crashed into a freeway guardrail and then pointed a gun at officers, authorities said. The incident began at about 2:17 p.m. when two men, both carrying handguns and wearing ski masks, entered the Bank of America on Harbor Boulevard in Fountain Valley, and one yelled, "Everybody down! Give me money!" said FBI spokesman Gary Morley.

A man suspected of being a busy Orange County bank robber dubbed "the Nerd" because of his thick eye glasses was arrested Friday after FBI agents used information on a holdup note to track him to an Anaheim apartment complex. FBI agent Bucky Cox said John Wade Oechsle, 22, was arrested without incident when agents used information they found inside an envelope on which the bank robber had written a note demanding money.

Captain of the Rowland High School cheerleading squad, honor student and senior class "teacher's pet": Who would have imagined Elizabeth Hernandez Maddex charged with robbing a bank? Not Amy Heinlein, who's known Liz since junior high and thinks "temporary insanity" is the only viable explanation if what the FBI charges is true: that her best friend, in a dark ski mask, held up a Bank of America branch in Fullerton.

Police arrested a man suspected of bank robbery here and burglary in Colorado as he crouched between two vending machines in a hotel Wednesday morning. About 11 a.m. a man walked into a Bank of America branch at 7855 La Palma Ave. and handed a teller a note saying he had a gun. The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of cash and the man ran out, police said. Officers cordoned off the area "and got to searching and snooping" immediately after the robbery, Lt. Dick Hafdahl said.

In a telephone conversation with police, a fugitive suspected of critically wounding an armored car driver outside a 7-Eleven last week said the shooting was "an accident" but refused to turn himself in, according to police records released Monday. "Catch me if you can," the man allegedly dared police.

After a dramatic New Year's Eve standoff, police SWAT teams and bomb squads late Tuesday rescued 29 Bank of America employees and customers held hostage for 6 1/2 hours after a botched robbery. The strange, televised drama began about 4 p.m. and intensified about 8:45 when a bare-chested man--thought to be a suspect but later described by a fellow hostage as "an idiot who endangered our lives" by confusing police--emerged from the bank with his hands high.

A Garden Grove man was sentenced Monday to 65 months in prison for his role in a bank robbery authorities said was planned by a former cheerleader and ex-bank employee who was pregnant at the time. Larry Thomas Stratton Jr., 28, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor to repay more than $8,000 to Bank of America. Under terms of his sentencing, the self-employed scuba instructor and surfer will be supervised for five years after his release.

After a short car chase Friday through lunchtime traffic, a Brea police detective shot and wounded one of two Ontario men suspected of robbing a savings and loan on Imperial Highway near State College Boulevard, police said. Roberto Carrillo, 31, was shot once in the arm about 1 p.m. and reported in stable condition at Brea Community Hospital, Lt. Jim Winder said. He and Edward Bonilla Hernandez, 35, were arrested on suspicion of bank robbery, Winder said.

A 43-year-old Huntington Beach resident was arrested Saturday afternoon on suspicion of robbery after a holdup of the Bank of America's Beach Boulevard branch, police said. The robbery suspect, Louis G. Siggiani, was taken into custody after witnesses told police that they saw him drive a car matching the description of the robber's getaway car, said Sgt. Bill Peterson. Peterson said that police were called to the bank at 11:40 a.m.