(Nov. 13) -- An unemployed mother of five children was arrested Friday in connection with two bank robberies, and she is suspected of pulling off at least two more heists.
The 37-year-old suspect, Roxanne Pennock, lives in Poway, Calif., a suburb of San Diego, according to KNBC News.
Pennock was arrested after she was spotted on Interstate 15 driving a red minivan on that matched a vehicle description reported in the robbery of a Chase Bank branch in Temecula, Calif.
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Roxanne Pennock, an unemployed mother of five from Poway, Calif., is suspected in a string of bank robberies.
A search of the van provided evidence that linked her to the robbery, investigators said.
"It was sort of a head smacker, we didn't predict that at all," Pennock's neighbor Thomas Leete told KNBC. "We would never have suspected this."
Police said they have also linked Pennock with an Oct. 22 heist at a Bank of America branch in Temecula, Los Angeles' KTLA reported.
The robber used a semiautomatic handgun to hold up the banks, police said. Surveillance videos captured a figure who appears to be Pennock wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a mask to hide her face, KTLA said.
Pennock has pleaded not guilty to two counts of robbery and two counts of burglary. So far, charges have only been filed in two of the bank robberies, though authorities say more may soon be added.
The San Diego Union Tribune reported that Pennock, who had worked at a Costco store earlier in the year, joked with a neighbor about the notion of a woman robbing a bank.
"We were laughing about it," Laura Van Tyne told the newspaper. Van Tyne went on to say that she and other neighbors felt especially bad for Pennock's children.
"It's sickening," Van Tyne said. "She must have been very desperate."
