Bank Employee, 2 Others Arrested In Conspiracy To Rob Customers After Withdrawals

Three people, including a bank employee, have been charged in connection with a robbery scheme that targeted bank customers who had just made large withdrawals, California authorities said.

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation began when deputies responded to a report of an armed robbery in a residential driveway in unincorporated Novato. The victim said a masked suspect robbed them at gunpoint after they returned home from a Novato bank.

The victim provided a description of the suspect vehicle and bank surveillance video showed the vehicle following the victim from the bank. Detectives identified the vehicle’s registered owner and began investigating “known associates.”

During the course of the investigation, two similar robberies were reported by customers of the same bank to the Novato Police Department and the San Rafael Police Department.

Working together, investigators identified 30-year-old Alexander Cunningham of San Pablo as a suspect, obtained search warrants, and began conducting surveillance. They learned Cunningham allegedly conspired with two other suspects to commit the robberies — 29-year-old Danielle Torres and 25-year-old Alexis Flores of Vallejo.

One of the suspect was confirmed to be an employee of the bank at the time of all three robberies.

On Feb. 5, tactical teams from all three law enforcement agencies executed search warrants at one location in San Pablo and two locations in Vallejo and “seized evidence linking all three suspects to the crimes,” including some $160,000 in cash, along with drugs and an unserialized or “ghost” gun.

All three suspects were booked into the Marin County Jail. Cunningham is facing robbery, conspiracy and drug charges; Torres is facing conspiracy charges; and Flores is facing conspiracy, drugs and weapons charges.