Suspect arrested in 3 Southern California bank robberies in 1 hour

Police arrested a 62-year-old man suspected of committing three bank robberies in about an hour in Temecula and Murrieta.

The man, Sonny Tho Leu, was arrested by police in Murrieta after stopping his vehicle.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office, the first of the robberies occurred Tuesday morning at a bank on Margarita Road in Temecula.

When officers arrived at the bank at 11:51 a.m., employees told them a man had handed a note to a teller demanding money. The cashier complied and the man left with an undisclosed amount of money.

Bank employees said he was wearing a blue shirt, baseball cap and carrying an orange bag.

While officers were at the bank questioning people, they learned that a person with the same description had just committed two bank robberies in Murrieta “using the same method,” the county's office said. sheriff in a press release.

At 12:19 p.m., just 28 minutes after officers arrived at the Temecula bank, Murrieta police received a call about an armed robbery at a bank on California Oaks Road.

A bank employee told police the man, wearing a black baseball cap and carrying an orange bag, handed over a note demanding money while showing a gun in his waistband.

Once again, a teller handed over money and the man fled.

At 12:58 p.m., while officers and detectives were in the area searching for the man, another call came in of a robbery at a bank on Hancock Avenue in Murrieta.

Again, a bank employee handed him an undisclosed amount of money and the man left.

Authorities quickly identified the vehicle and shared the details over police radio.

Officers stopped the car as the suspect pulled into the driveway of a Murrieta home.

Murrieta police said a search of the vehicle revealed evidence of the thefts and Leu was identified as the suspect in all three thefts.

He was imprisoned on suspicion of bank robbery and criminal threats.