A Newhall bank was robbed Friday afternoon for the second time since September, marking Santa Clarita’s fifth bank robbery this year.
A sheriff’s deputy outside Citibank’s Newhall branch minutes after Friday’s robbery said the suspect’s description and method matched the robber of a Canyon Country bank last month.
The apparently unarmed robber handed the teller a note demanding money just after 3 p.m. and escaped on foot with $2,000 to $3,000, the deputy said.
Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Gump said the man was described as a 6-foot-tall man who weighs about 180 pounds with black hair. He was last seen running across the bank’s parking lot toward Lyons Avenue.
“I know they’ve been hit a few times here in the last year,” Gump said of the bank, which is nestled at the edge of a parking lot near the intersection of Lyons Avenue and Apple Street.
On Sept. 3, a different man used a similar method to rob the Citibank branch — he walked into the bank around 4:15 p.m. on a Friday and handed a teller a note. He also escaped on foot.