Full Notification

The person believed to be connected with four separate incidents where elderly people were followed home after making withdrawals from local banks has been identified and is in-custody.

The suspect watched the elderly victims make withdrawals and followed them to their residences. As the victims got out of their car, the suspect approached them and stole the withdrawal using physical force. No weapons were used or seen during the recent incident in Stevenson Ranch.

Detectives from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station Robbery and Assault team have been investigating the robbery that occurred on Thursday, May 12, 2011. During the thorough investigation, Santa Clarita detectives were able to identify a potential suspect. They also determined that at a similar case had occurred in the Acton area of Palmdale Station and two similar incidents in the jurisdiction of the Glendale Police Department.

Detectives learned that the potential suspect was arrested on unrelated charges by the Los Angeles Police Department in the early morning of May 13, 2011. The vehicle the suspect was driving during the incident in Stevenson Ranch, a black Dodge Charger was also recovered.

The suspect was identified as Lee Jones MB/41 of Lancaster. He is being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility without bail due to a parole hold.

There is no further information available at this time.

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station officials are offering the following personal safety tips:
•Always be alert and aware of the people around you, especially if you are alone or it is dark.
•Educate yourself concerning prevention tactics.
•Be aware of locations and situations which would make you vulnerable to crime, such as alleys, dark parking lots, and remote, unlit, or sparsely traveled walkways and pathways.
•Whenever possible, travel or walk with a friend.
•Don't set a pattern - use different routes of travel and varying times when walking, exercising, or leaving your house or place of business.
•Immediately report suspicious activity or persons in your neighborhoods to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station.
•Be a good witness - Try to get a vehicle license plate number. If you can't get the vehicle license plate number try to get as much identifying information about the vehicle or person as you can. Such as, color, make, model, damage, type of rims, stickers, etc. pertaining to vehicles. Clothing, scars, tattoos, oddities, etc. pertaining to people.
•Take a cell phone picture or video of the person or vehicle if you can safely do so. Save/store the information in your phone or PDA.
•Write down license plates of unfamiliar vehicles in your neighborhoods in case something comes of them at a later date. The information may solve a case should a crime be occurring.

The investigation is ongoing and there is no further information available at this time.

If You See Something, Say Something! Anyone with information about a local crime is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Clarita Valley Station at (661) 255-1121.

If you prefer to provide information ANONYMOUSLY, you can call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or using the web site http://lacrimestoppers.org.

Always verify the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station's information and news releases by visiting our Web site at SCVSheriff, the city of Santa Clarita's Web site at Santa-Clarita, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Web site at http://www.lasd.org/. Six other local news outlets are www.hometownstation.com/, http://www.the-signal.com/, www.scvtv.com/, www.scvtalk.com/, www.westranchbeacon.com, and www.santaclaritaguide.com/.

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