Comments & Curiosities:

“Blue moon, you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.”

I didn’t say that. Rodgers and Hart did, in 1934. But there’s a good chance that David Andrew Camp is singing it these days. Camp was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of being the “Blue Note Bandit” — a workaholic bank robber who pulled off an amazing 15 bank heists in Orange County since November, including two in Costa Mesa — a Chase Bank on Dec. 1 and a U.S. Bank on Feb. 1.

Camp got the “blue note” tag because he handed tellers a note, usually on blue paper, which is a nice touch. Just because you’re a bank robber doesn’t mean you can’t be stylish. In addition to the two Costa Mesa banks, Camp is accused of bad bank behavior in Irvine, Dana Point, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Niguel, which is a lot of banks. Maybe some of the bank jobs were for gas money.

Prolific, definitely, but the most colorful? Not by a long shot. When you tour the bank robbery wing of the Newport-Mesa Bad Boy-Bad Girl Hall of Fame, one name stands out above the rest — Brianna Catherine Cery.

Nothing? Try this — Bryan Cery, the 50-something man whose day job was at Ralphs on 17th Street and who moonlighted not only as a bank robber, but a transvestite bank robber. You don’t see a lot of those anymore.

How was Bryan/Brianna caught? Funny you should ask. That’s what secures Cery’s place in Newport-Mesa crime history always, forever and in perpetuity, any of which is a long time.

It’s 2004. Brianna is making an unauthorized withdrawal from the Bank of America on Newport Center Drive. Even in his full-battle bank robber gear — wig, tank top, tight jeans and heels — a bank customer who is also a regular at Ralphs recognizes Bryan and actually says “hi,” oblivious to the fact that a robbery is in progress and that Brianna is just a little tiny bit busy at the moment, thank you.

Cery made it out the door with the cash but was tracked down and arrested in record time. I would still like to know exactly when did the customer decide that it was a good idea to walk up to the cross-dressing bank robber, tap him on the shoulder and say, “Hey, Bry, I was in the other day and you’re still out of Diet Snapple. Are you getting more in?”

In second place is Daniel James Dunleavy, who lost to Bryn Cery by only six tenths of a point. Dunleavy was the most environmentally sensitive bank robber in Newport-Mesa history and possibly the history of the world. On March 5, 2008, he walked into the Bank of America at East Coast Highway and Marigold and told the teller he had a bomb. Tellers don’t like that. It makes them tense.

Like Cery, Dunleavy left in haste with cash in hand and like Cery, was caught in record time. How? The Newport Beach police found him just blocks away, at a bus stop, waiting calmly and quietly for a bus.

I know we’re all supposed to reduce our carbon footprint, but if you’re a bank robber, taking the bus is a bad idea. When people are chasing you or worse yet shooting at you, waiting for a bus can be a huge problem.

But whether a bank robber is prolific, a cross-dresser or worried about global warming, the question remains, why do they do it? The average take is paltry and the odds of getting away with it are astronomical. The anti-bad guy technology gets better and better, with silent alarms, dye packs, digital security cameras and special bills and coins with GPS chips implanted in them that signal every move the robber makes.

Bank robbers ignore all that and just keep coming probably because they tend to be on the lowest rung of the bad guy food chain — no better at robbing banks than they are at holding a job or staying off drugs. If they only did it once, they’d have a chance of getting away with it. But like potato chips, nobody can rob just one. Two-thirds of bank robbers are serial stealers.

I think that’s it. Avoid robbing banks whenever possible, but if you must, don’t take the bus and if you’re going in drag, at least try to look good. Make sure you comb your hair before they take your mug shot. It’s important. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at [email protected] .