** NEWS RELEASE **
Mammoth Lakes Bank Robbery Update
A robbery occurred at the Mammoth Lakes branch of Union Bank on Friday, August 2. Two possible suspects have been identified and located, and both have been cleared.
The bank’s surveillance camera photo was widely distributed through the local media and several local residents identified two different people as the suspect. The first individual was identified by a local resident who, after viewing the surveillance photo, believed it was a local resident. That person was located a few days later and cleared as a possible suspect.
The second suspect was identified by multiple local residents as a former Mammoth Lakes resident. There was sufficient information for an arrest warrant and the individual was located in Santa Monica and arrested by the Santa Monica Police Department on August 14 and held for MLPD. On August 15, two MLPD officers traveled to Santa Monica and transported the warrant suspect back to Mammoth Lakes. After further investigation, it was determined that there was sufficient conflicting evidence to release the individual pending further investigation. The arrest warrant was withdrawn and he has returned to Southern California.
The investigation is continuing. The robbery occurred at 2:45 pm when the suspect entered the bank and passed a note to the teller which stated in both English and Spanish, “ROBBERY.” The teller handed the cash from her cash drawer to the suspect and activated the silent alarm as he was walking towards the exit. MLPD officers arrived in less than three minutes but were unable to locate the suspect.
The suspect is described as a Male, white, between 55-60 years, 5-9, slender build, white hair covered with a light green baseball cap, checkered white, red, and green long sleeve shirt. He was clean shaven. No vehicle or weapon was seen.
The Police Department has received many tips from the public. Anyone with information about the suspect is requested to contact the MLPD at (760) 934-2011.
MAMMOTH LAKES POLICE DEPARTMENT
568 Old Mammoth Rd., P.O. Box 2799, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
FOR TIPS, VISIT OUR WEBSITE HYPERLINK “http://www.mammothlakespd.org” www.mammothlakespd.org AND SEND AN EMAIL OR CALL OUR TIP HOT LINE @ 760 934-3261.
So when they escorted the individual from Santa Monica to Mono County they waited to get the facts? I do not support the status quo at all! I do not support practices that seem to be counter productive to society, whether it effects me first hand or not. Our law… Read more »
The fact is, you and I don’t have the facts.
Benett
Your right, I have no facts on this specific case, so then it’s settled. Besides the way they jumped to conclusions thinking they had their man before they had the FACTS.. Law enforcement needs the general public, that’s how they get most of their leads, but it seems they don’t… Read more »
Quite the contrary, we have a lot of “facts”, enough in which to sow a seed of opinion, and for reasonable people such as JJ to confirm a few suspicions. Not having all the facts is not the same thing as not having any facts at all. We have the… Read more »
Not for me.
Benett Kessler
Combat first and ask questions later.. serve and protect? HA! that’s so 19th century! Police forces have become so militarized it’s ridiculous! Yes I believe in law enforcement, Yes we need them, But no we do not need swat teams for stuff like this; (all recent incidents) -In Texas they… Read more »
Waiting to get facts does not equal “having a blind dedication to supposed authorities.”
Benett Kessler
Calm Down, Jeremiah. Where in the story did you see that a SWAT team was used? What awesome equipment did MLPD use? There’s not a SWAT team anywhere in the Eastern Sierra. It sounds to me like they had an arrest warrant. It was served, and when MLPD gathered whatever… Read more »
(Deep Breaths, go to my happy place…found it!) Calm Down? Seriously Calm Down? There’s no SWAT type team in the eastern sierras? Wrong! do we need SWAT in some dire situations, yes (just for the record). But excuse me for taking the waste of tax dollars seriously. I was just… Read more »
Just put his picture on Reddit or Twitter and he’ll be found in 12 hours.
I’d be one pissed of dude if I was arrested (in Santa Monica) and dragged all the way back to Mammoth in cuffs because I resembled somebody else. Why couldn’t they verify his story while he was still in So. Cal. , locked up safe in jail, not going anywhere?… Read more »
We don’t know what the evidence was, Big Rick. Our officers are working the case. We can’t judge actions without details.
Benett
Sounds to me like Mammoth Police are on a fishing expedition.
Ya know this is pretty sad that this happened almost across the street from the MLPD. And they could not get the guy! This is the kind of stuff that happens when you strip the PD below BARE BONES! This town is going to get sued big time soon. Our… Read more »
I’m sure Inyo county could cough up a couple of officers for Mono County to use, without leaving to little for Inyo county needs.
I’m just saying, Bennett, that they could have saved a lot of time, money,embarrassment, if they wouldn’t have jumped the gun & did a little more investigating, locally, while this guy was cooling his heels in the Santa Monica lock-up. HE wasn’t going anywhere… To arrest a guy AND haul… Read more »
For sure. All I’m saying is we do not have the facts about the evidence police used to interrogate this man. Until we do, we can’t draw many accurate conclusions.
BK
You gotta feel for the dude from Santa Monica.