Corona del Mar bank heist thwarted

Police are searching for a man who unsuccessfully tried to rob a Corona del Mar bank and then moved on to a South Orange County bank where he made off with a large amount of cash Wednesday.

The man — called the “cue card bandit” — held up a note, written in a spiral notebook, to a teller in a Wells Fargo branch in the 2100 block of East Coast Highway at 11:15 a.m., Newport Beach Police Sgt. Bill Hartford said. The teller told him the bank didn’t carry cash, and he walked out the door, Hartford said. At about noon the man showed a demand note to a teller at a Laguna Woods bank and was given cash, Hartford said. Police refused to specify how much was taken in the hold-up.

The man is believed to be the same person who has robbed nine Orange County banks, including a Costa Mesa Citibank on Sept. 1, Hartford said.

No gun was reported in either robbery Wednesday, but in previous robberies he has shown a black, semi-automatic handgun, Hartford said.

The robber is described as an Asian or Latino man in his 40s, between 5-feet-6 and 5-feet-8 tall, and weighing 170 pounds. He has a stocky build, dark hair, an unshaven face and was wearing a baseball cap, black-framed sunglasses, a shirt with buttons and jeans in Wednesday’s stick-ups.

In earlier robberies, he has been seen leaving in a black, compact car.