2 Held After Woman Forced to Surrender $300 From ATM

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  Authorities arrested two men after one allegedly ordered a woman to get $300 from an automatic teller machine for him while he talked via hand-held radio with another man in a getaway car.

Edward Kelley Johnson, 22, of Aliso Viejo and James Louis Jenkins, 18, of Laguna Niguel were held in lieu of $50,000 bail each, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

At about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday, a man confronted the woman outside the Bank of America in the 30000 block of Crown Valley Parkway, officials said.

Holding what appeared to be a handgun, he robbed her and threw her car keys across the parking lot, Olson said. The robber then talked to someone on the walkie-talkie and then fled on foot.

Thinking that the robbers might try the same thing at another Bank of America, deputies staked out the branch in the 26000 block of the same street in Mission Viejo.

At 10 p.m., a station wagon with two men drove into the parking lot and officials stopped them. The victim was then asked to go there for an in-field lineup, and she identified Johnson as the man who robbed her earlier, Olson said.

Two hand-held radios were found in their car, he said.

“We’re checking out the possibility that they have been involved in other robberies in the county,” Olson said.

The two men are scheduled to be arraigned today in South County Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel.