The PT Cruiser bandit has apparently struck again – this time a block from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
A man wearing a fedora robbed the California Credit Union on Magic Mountain Parkway shortly after 5 p.m., the same time of day as two of three other SCV banks robbed since June.
“They’re saying it was the same guy,” Sgt. Niels Gittisarn, of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, told The Signal.
A description of Thursday’s bank robber is being compared to other banks hit – two in Newhall and one in Valencia.
Thursday’s bank robber was described as wearing tan-colored shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and a fedora.
“He was 5-foot-3 and 170 pounds,” Gittisarn said.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m., several deputies descended on a white PT Cruiser stopped at the Mobile gas station on Via Princessa at Sierra Highway.
They detained a man standing near the vehicle at gunpoint.
“It has not been confirmed that he is the robber,” Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s station said.
If it is the same bank robber, the credit union on Magic Mountain Parkway is the fourth Santa Clarita Valley bank he’s robbed in less than three months.
On July 25, about 5:15 p.m., a lone male entered the Logix Valencia Promenade bank branch on McBean Parkway near Magic Mountain Parkway and held up the bank.
Deputies dispatched to the scene of the July robbery were also given a description of a white PT Cruiser.
“It looks like we’re dealing with the same guy,” Becerra said at the time, referring to two previous bank robberies in Newhall in June.
FBI agents continue to probe two bank robberies in Newhall in June, having released a photo of the suspect wanted for the first of what is now believed to be three local bank robberies.
The photo first appeared on the FBI-sanctioned website – LAbankrobbers.org – which is run by the FBI’s bank robbery coordinator.
The suspect was captured by surveillance camera wearing a white or beige baseball cap, sunglasses and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt.
The published photo is marked as having been taken at the Wells Fargo branch on Lyons Avenue at Wiley Canyon Road on June 12.
On June 12, shortly before 3 p.m., a lone male walked into the bank branch of Wells Fargo near the intersection of Lyons Avenue and Wiley Canyon Road and gave a note to a teller demanding money and indicating he had a gun, Miller said at the time.
Bank robbery investigators including FBI agents and detectives with the Major Crimes Bureau called in to investigate the robbery were called back to the SCV June 20 for a second similar robbery at the Chase Bank in Newhall.
In that robbery, like the one on June 12, a lone male walked into the Chase Bank branch on Lyons Avenue at Apple Street shortly after 5 p.m. and walked out with an undisclosed amount of money, having warned a teller he had a gun although no gun was seen.
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