US Bank in Los Alamitos robbed by same bandit for third time

The following information was released by Los Alamitos Police Department.

For the third time in the last fourteen months, the Los Alamitos US Bank branch located at 10942 Pine St. was robbed by the same knife-wielding suspect.

At 9:12 a.m., Tuesday, Setp. 11, the suspect, named by the FBI as the $5k Bandit, entered the branch office and demanded money from the bank tellers while threatening them with a large butcher knife.

He has used a similar knife in all previous robberies, and in this incident, surveillance photographs capture the suspect jumping over the bank counter with the knife in his hand.

Witnesses describe the bandit as a muscular African-American male with a dark complexion. He appears to be between the ages of 30 to 40 and was seen wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt, dark or black pants, gloves, sunglasses, and a black logo baseball cap with a broad red bill.

He used a large black bag similar to a backpack to secure the money gained from the robbery.

Although no injuries were reported in the robbery, several witnesses were shaken by the events.

The suspect left the bank on foot through the west doors of the branch office and was last seen in the area of the CIF Regional Offices.

Police officers from the Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, and Cypress Departments, as well as the investigators from the Los Angeles FBI office responded to i nvestigate the crime.

The first responding unit arrived to the bank within four minutes of the initial call placed to police and subsequently detained a person matching the general description of the suspect. That person was determined to be uninvolved and released.

The bank suffered an undisclosed loss of U.S. currency.

Anyone with information related to the robbery is encouraged to contact Detective Jake Sorensen at 562-431-2255, ext. 407.