An hour after a robber presented a demand note to U.S. Bank tellers and fled the downtown Laguna Beach branch, police arrested a 24-year-old man that fit the bandit’s description seated at a North Laguna bus bench, police said Wednesday.
Kyle Alan Veach, with no known current address, was arrested for suspicion of robbery and a parole hold, said Sgt. Louise Callus. The money stolen from the bank was also recovered, she said in a statement.
Though the incident was the year’s first bank hold-up, the same branch was targeted for stick-ups once in 2011 and twice in 2010.
County court records show the suspected robber is also known to police. Veach pled guilty last year to burglary following his arrest by Laguna Beach police. Records show the former Indianapolis resident also pled guilty to receiving stolen property and possessing a counterfeit die apparatus in 2011.
On Wednesday, bank employees informed police of a noontime robbery by a male suspect, who placed a handwritten demand note on the counter, Callus said.
Dispatchers obtained a description of the suspect and police set up a perimeter to search downtown while others searched the bank, she said.
Witnesses were able to direct officers toward the suspect’s direction of travel, Callus said.
At 1:03 p.m., an officer saw a person at the bus stop at Jasmine and North Coast Highway that fit the description of the bank robbery suspect, she said.
