Crime & Safety
Bank of America Suspect Dubbed 'Tourist Bandit,' Tied to Weho Robbery
The man who robbed Venice's Bank of America on Wednesday is suspected of striking a West Hollywood branch earlier in the week, officials say.
The FBI has linked the suspect in in Venice to one Monday at the West Hollywood branch.
In both cases, the suspect wore a dark blue hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses. Images (at right) from the banks' surveillance cameras seem to show the same man.
"The MO is very similar, and the description is very similar," said Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office. "It appears to be the same individual," she said.
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In both cases, the suspect told bank employees he had a bomb, she said.
The FBI has dubbed the suspect the "tourist bandit" because of the locations he has hit and his attire. In West Hollywood, he wore a UCLA sweatshirt, and in Venice he wore a Venice Beach sweatshirt.
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Between 70 and 80 percent of bank robbers in this FBI district are eventually caught, Eimiller said.
"We've always had a very high success rate in solving bank robberies, especially if the bank robbers keep robbing banks," she said.
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