Man Arrested In Connection With Temecula Bank Robbery

A man robbed a Citibank branch in Temecula and was later arrested during a traffic stop, a sheriff's sergeant said today.

The hold-up was reported at 2:03 p.m. Friday in the 26000 block of Ynez Road. The suspect, Dunn Patrick Thompson, 44, of Riverside, walked in and handed a bank teller a note demanding money, Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Kevin McDonald said.

Thompson fled with an undisclosed amount of cash in a Ford F-150 pickup truck with an extended cab. A sheriff's deputy spotted the truck about an hour after the robbery and pulled over the driver for a traffic violation at Winchester and Nicolas roads, McDonald said.

Thompson was arrested for suspicion of bank robbery and sheriff's deputies seized evidence allegedly tying Thompson to Friday's hold-up.

Thompson was also being investigated for his alleged connection to other bank robberies in the southwest Riverside County, McDonald said. 

It was not immediately clear Saturday whether that investigation involved two recent robberies in Murrieta: Dec. 9 at Pacific Western Bank on Kalmia Street and Dec. 11 at JP Morgan Chase Bank on California Oaks Road. In both instances, the suspect handed a teller a demand note and received an undisclosed amount of cash.

Thompson—5 feet 6 and 175 pounds—was being held in lieu of $2 million bail at Southwest Detention Center, jail records indicated Saturday.

--City News Service and Maggie Avants contributed to this report.