Bank Reopens, but It’s Not Business as Usual

THOUSAND OAKS — The tellers hailed from Victorville and San Diego, not Camarillo. A security guard wearing a hip holster paced the lobby. And carnations, crosses, cards and candles clogged one entrance.

But Western Financial Bank reopened its doors Thursday, three days after teller Monica Lynne Leech, a Camarillo mother of two, was killed execution-style in a takeover bank robbery.

At 9 a.m. sharp, a customer marched purposefully inside. Two minutes later, another arrived. And another. None of them seemed frightened in the least.

“This may be one of the safest banks around now,” said Thousand Oaks resident Marge Minkler, who cares for an elderly woman in the Old Town neighborhood near the bank. “I came back because it’s convenient for me.”

Wearing a silver and turquoise cross around her neck, Minkler bore a mission beyond making a deposit. She wanted to teach the two robbers--who are still being sought--a lesson.

“They didn’t win,” she said, hand on hip. “These guys didn’t win. You can walk in there and still feel the warmth and love of [Leech]. . . . The love and the warmth aren’t gone. As far as I’m concerned, she’s still there.”

The killing of Leech, 39, described by friends and family as a compassionate churchgoer, rattled Thousand Oaks, which is consistently ranked among the safest cities with populations more than 100,000.

Police say they have tips too numerous to count in the slaying. With more than $160,000 in reward money as enticement, tipsters have been flooding phone lines. While solid leads have been scant, police seem upbeat about the information.

“We have more--and possibly better--information than before,” said Chief Deputy Bob Brooks of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “We’ve had an avalanche of calls. Tips are coming in on virtually every phone line we have.”

Brooks declined to discuss specific leads, as did supervising agent Gary Auer of the FBI’s Ventura office.

But Wednesday, special agent Larry Dick said investigators are paying close attention to a March 29 holdup in Danville, Calif., in which a Bank of America employee was shot in the arm.

According to newspaper reports, the robbery took place just before 9:30 a.m. in the affluent suburb outside of Concord. Wearing dark silk hoods, two armed men of medium height burst into the branch, yelling their intent to rob. One fired his shotgun and ordered employees and customers to the floor, officials said. He raided the teller drawers.

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The second man jumped over the counter and ordered a clerk to the vault. Apparently dissatisfied with the teller’s speed, the robber shot her in the arm.

The pair--both described as about 5 feet 10 and of medium build, one reportedly wearing his hair in dreadlocks--ran across the parking lot to a waiting, beat-up brown BMW. A customer pursued the pair by car until a gunman fired a shot that hit the customer’s car. The customer retreated while the men escaped.

By comparison, authorities give this account of Monday’s deadly holdup: Two men with nylon stockings over their faces wearing construction hats and yellow jackets stormed the small Thousand Oaks bank, guns drawn, and yelled that they were robbing the branch.

The pair rounded up the branch’s four employees and handcuffed Leech and another employee. One of the men jumped the teller counter and emptied cash drawers.

In a side room that contained the bank’s safe, employees were ordered to hand over an undisclosed amount of money, authorities said. Cash in hand, the robbers ordered the workers to their knees. Apparently without provocation, one of the men raised a gun to the back of Leech’s head and shot her.

Having parked a getaway car on a nearby residential street, the duo ran out of the bank and fled in a late-model white sports utility vehicle--possibly a Jeep or Ford Explorer. About to enter the Ventura Freeway at Hampshire Road, the car was involved in a hit-and-run. Witnesses last saw the car traveling north on the Moorpark Freeway near Avenida de los Arboles.

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Both robbers are described as being in their mid-20s, about 5 feet, 11 inches tall. One man was white and the other was black or dark-skinned. They were last seen in the car with a license plate beginning “3T.”

The two holdups “certainly sound similar,” said Danville Police Sgt. Matt Chertkow. “We’d like to catch these guys.”

At the Western Financial Bank on Thursday, signs with robber descriptions were taped by both doors. A veritable flower stand of bouquets from well-wishers crowded the sidewalk. A first-grade class had taped a butcher paper and crayon card on the bank’s plate glass, reading “Our thoughts are with you.”

None of the six people working during the bank’s reopening witnessed Monday’s tragedy, according to Kevin R. Farrenkopf, a senior vice president with the Irvine-based bank. The three surviving employees, with the help of crisis counselors, family and friends, are working through “the grieving process.”

“They’re not back at work today,” he said from the parking lot of the Thousand Oaks branch. “It remains to be seen if they will return” at all.

If the two women and one man do return to Western Financial, they will have their pick of branches. In the meantime, staffers from Victorville, Costa Mesa, Irvine and San Diego are filling in.

Inside the branch, employees create a semblance of normalcy. Two tellers cheerfully answered the ever-ringing phones, “Hi, thank you for calling Western Financial.”

A decanter of coffee and a plate of cookies awaited customers in the entrance.

“Right when you think it’s possible to deal with it, you see a sign on the door, or a look in a customer’s eye, and . . . ,” Farrenkopf hunts for words. “ . . . And it’s a hard one to deal with.”

Depending on the customer, some complimented the tellers on their bravery, some offered their condolences and others kept mum.

“They’re very nice, very nice,” said Thousand Oaks resident Kim Hoang, who stopped by the bank. “I just said, ‘I’m very sorry’ to her, I feel upset about it.”

Anyone with information about the crime should call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME. Callers may remain anonymous.

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Memorials

* A memorial service is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today at Camarillo Church of the Nazarene, 2280 Antonio Ave., Camarillo. A private interment will take place in the afternoon.

* At a board of directors meeting Tuesday, Western Financial Bank contributed $100,000 to set up a memorial fund at the Thousand Oaks branch where Monica Leech was killed. Donations, which will benefit Leech’s family, may be sent to the Monica Leech Memorial Fund, c/o Western Financial Bank, 2920 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. Donations will also be accepted at other Western Financial branches.

* Home Savings of America in Oxnard, which owns the branch where Monica Leech once worked, created a memorial fund because her benefits had not yet started at her new job. People who want to contribute to this fund can do so at any Home Savings bank in Ventura County.

* MAN ASSAULTED

Another robbery in Thousand Oaks leaves a store employee injured. B4