Suspects Arrested in ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Heists

It was quite a show but, as did their small-screen namesakes, Charlie’s Angels may just have gotten canceled.

FBI agents and Riverside police Thursday arrested three women--saying the three were the women whom agents have tagged with the name of the popular 1970s television show--on suspicion of bank robbery.

Tenisha Dawn Norris, 21; Aiesha N. Hewitt, 22; and her sister, Rashida Kamilah Hewitt, 18, were taken into custody without incident at their Riverside apartment complex, said Donald R. Kelly, FBI senior supervisor resident agent.

The FBI says they are the three women alleged to have robbed 11 banks and credit unions in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties since April. Sometimes wearing breezy Hawaiian dresses and clogs, at other times clothed in plain overalls, “Charlie’s Angels” became among the best-known bank robbers in Southern California.

Riverside police say the women are criminal novices. One of them allegedly told police that they got the idea for knocking off banks from a newspaper article.

“They saw an article in the [Riverside] Press-Enterprise about a bank robber . . . and thought it would be easy to do,” said Riverside Police Sgt. John Carpenter.

FBI agents dubbed the bandits “Charlie’s Angels” because they made bank tellers believe they carried handguns in their purses--although, as in the 1970s TV show, no weapon was ever seen.

Thursday’ arrests followed a tip to police, prompted by media coverage of the women’s alleged crime wave, Kelly said.

Law enforcement officials arrested the women after questioning people at an apartment complex in the 3100 block of Panorama Street early Thursday.

Riverside Police Officer Mike Medici said authorities recovered some money that allegedly had been stolen, but not a significant sum. The women weren’t living the high life, he added. He described their living conditions as “average.”

The three Riverside women are being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, officials said. They are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles today on multiple counts of bank robbery.

FBI agents and others say Charlie’s Angels stood out because they were women operating in a criminal enterprise dominated by men. Females account for a mere 2% to 3% of all bank robbery suspects, said Daniel A. Bodony, FBI special agent and the agency’s Los Angeles bank robbery coordinator.

Authorities say the Angels hit two or even three banks in a single day. While two robbers waited nearby, one woman would stand in line as if she were a customer and then present the teller with a profanity-laced holdup note. The demands were typically written in gold glitter ink, authorities said.

Officials said the Angels committed their first holdup at a Bank of America in West Covina on April 15, striking later in the day at a Wells Fargo in Pomona.

Their busiest day was Aug. 7, when they hit a Western Financial Savings in Riverside at 10 a.m., a teachers’ credit union in Anaheim shortly before 11 a.m., and a Riverside credit union at midafternoon.

The last time they allegedly struck was Monday, when authorities said they robbed a Cal Fed Bank in Buena Park before knocking off a Washington Mutual in Diamond Bar an hour later.