Bank Heists Up to 23, but Total Relatively Low

Ventura County bank robberies nearly doubled during 2000 after a series of early-year heists in Thousand Oaks, but thieves have committed only five holdups in the last five months since the arrest of several serial criminals, the FBI reported Friday.

Bank robberies jumped from 12 in 1999 to 23 this year, a troubling increase but still the third lowest total in the last 15 years, said David Nesbitt, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Ventura office.

“I really don’t know the reason for the increase,” Nesbitt said. “It surprised me. But it’s still relatively low.”

This year’s 23 holdups compare with a record 97 in 1992. As recently as 1996, the county experienced 52 bank robberies. Then totals plummeted to last year’s low.

Thousand Oaks endured 10 of the 23 robberies this year, including four during two weeks in February. But the city has not been hit since Aug. 15, except for an attempted holdup in which the would-be robber panicked and fled without money last week.

Officials say that is partly because of increased security measures by bank officials who began to meet regularly in March as part of a new Sheriff’s Department anti-robbery task force.

“Not all banks talk to each other; they’re competitors,” said Cmdr. Keith Parks, who acts as Thousand Oaks’ police chief. “But we’ve been able to bring all the banks together to respond to this problem.”

Bank employees have received special training on greeting all customers as they enter to perhaps spook robbers, Parks said. Banks have installed better surveillance cameras. And some branches now have television sets by their entry doors--much like department stores--so thieves “will instantly see they cannot walk in anonymously,” Parks said.

The county has also benefited from the arrest of several suspected serial robbers, including two from Los Angeles County who have been convicted of east Ventura County heists this year. Three robbery suspects from Oxnard and Santa Paula also face potential sentences of life in prison because they have already been convicted of two felonies.

Perhaps the year’s most dramatic holdup occurred in February at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Thousand Oaks. Three Los Angeles County men stormed the bank, one pistol-whipped a teller, and then they fled to Ventura before being caught after a wild, rain-drenched freeway chase.

Those men--Edward Johnson, Marcus Timmons and Charley Robinet, all in their 20s--have been convicted of robbery. Robinet, a French citizen, was also convicted of brandishing a weapon and assaulting a young male teller with it, said Brent Robbins, the FBI’s local bank robbery specialist.

“Quite frequently the [robbers] are from out of the county,” Robbins said.

Investigators also think they have caught the March 13 robber of Los Robles Bank in Camarillo after the same man allegedly held up two Burbank banks in three days--leaving fingerprints, photographs and a license-plate number.

Warren Jay Kahn, dubbed the “Do it now bandit,” was arrested at his Lancaster house in April. The admitted cocaine-and-heroin addict is suspected in 16 robberies from Camarillo to Canyon Country in March and April, authorities said.

Los Angeles resident Kumasi Dennis, 22, was charged with a June robbery of a busy Bank of America branch in Thousand Oaks, and is suspected of robbing the same bank in February, Robbins said.

Another suspected serial robber, James Joseph Lizotte, 36, of Los Angeles, is charged with an Aug. 15 Thousand Oaks heist. Authorities allege he robbed more than 30 banks from San Diego to Sacramento before he was arrested in a Seattle robbery in September.

Oxnard had five bank robberies this year, the second-highest number behind Thousand Oaks.

Two Oxnard men are charged with robbing the same Bank of America branch on Saviers Road in south Oxnard once in May and once in July. Now both Steve E. Ramos, 32, and Greg D. Haverlah, 37--both twice-convicted felons--are accused of a third felony, Robbins said. Ramos is also charged with two other Oxnard bank robberies over a one-month period this year.

A 39-year-old Santa Paula man, Ruben C. Lopez, also faces a three-strike life sentence. He was arrested in a Nov. 21 bank robbery at Washington Mutual’s Harbor Boulevard branch in Ventura.

Ventura County Bank Robberies

*--*

Year Total Solved 2000 23 * 14 1999 12 6 1998 17 16 1997 25 20 1996 52 48 1995 50 41 1994 25 15 1993 48 41 1992 97 85 1991 52 41 1990 43 35 1989 76 57 1988 31 27 1987 60 52 1986 70 61

*--*

* FBI officials said they expect to solve some cases from 2000 next year.