Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Tuesday morning after he allegedly attempted to rob the Bank of America in Point Dume, fled the scene and later crashed into a fence near Zuma Beach.
The man entered Bank of America at Point Dume Village around 9 a.m. on Tuesday and “presented a note” to a teller, according to Lt. Jim Royal of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. It has not been determined whether the man made off with any money. As The Malibu Times went to press on Tuesday, the suspect’s identity had not been released.
Khalil Rafati, owner of neighboring SunLife Organics, helped catch the suspect when a customer came in and told him he thought the bank was being robbed.
“He went to the bank to get some money and when he went in there, he saw some guy acting really weird and thought that he was maybe robbing the bank,” Rafati said. “He came back over and asked for my cell phone to call 911. He said, ‘I think the bank is being robbed.’”
Rafati called 911 from his cell phone and reported what his customer told him. When the operator asked if he had visual confirmation, Rafati walked out of his shop and over to the bank.
“I walked outside and I looked in the bank and I saw there was one guy in there and everyone looked really scared and I said, ‘Yeah, the bank is definitely being robbed,’” he said. “And I ran over to the coffee shop, where everyone was sitting outside, and said, ‘Everybody go inside. The bank is being robbed.’”
Suzanne Marsh, who was inside the bank at the time of the alleged robbery, said employees remained calm during the robbery. She said a teller instructed her to leave the bank.
“He said, ‘I have to ask you to leave the bank,’” she said. The teller led her and other customers outside and asked to borrow a phone to call 911.
“There was also someone at the ATM that he asked to leave the area,” Marsh said.
Rafati said he saw the suspect leave the building. He stayed on the phone with the 911 operator as he followed the suspect, who he described as “just a big guy with a hat and a hood on…walking like he had a gun in his pocket.”
Authorities have not confirmed whether the suspect was armed.
Rafati said he followed the suspect as he walked up Heathercliff Road and Dume Drive toward an older model black truck. He said the suspect got in the car and took off after seeing Rafati, who was still on the phone with the 911 operator. The suspect then made a u-turn to drive up Dume Drive, away from Pacific Coast Highway. Rafati chased after the car, but could not follow it as it eventually looped around to the PCH.
“As I was running, I could hear the sirens running,” he said.
Sheriff’s deputies tracked down the suspect’s vehicle on westbound PCH. A short pursuit ensued and the male crashed his truck into a fence near PCH and Bonsall Drive, Royal said.
The suspect was arrested and did not appear to be injured in the accident. No further information on the suspect was released, but he was reportedly booked at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s station.
Rafati, whose store has been in the Point Dume Village for about two and a half years, said this was not the first robbery he’s heard of at the Bank of America or the adjacent Chase Bank. He said in 23 years of living in Malibu, he’s heard of at least six robberies between the banks, but that suspects are not always caught.
“Normally, the people get away,” Rafati said. “The police…thanked me and they said, ‘We just got him. We never would have got him if it weren’t for you.’”
The Bank of America branch at Point Dume Village declined to comment for this story and corporate media representative said the company would not comment on an ongoing police investigation.