Crime & Safety
Trio Charged In 'Bank Jugging' Vehicle Burglaries In Seal Beach
"Bank jugging" involves suspects watching bank customers leave with cash and then breaking into their vehicles at their next stop.
SANTA ANA, CA ‚— Three men in their 20s from Texas were charged Thursday with a conspiracy to break into vehicles across Southern California, part of what authorities describe as a nationwide "bank jugging" trend.
Maurice James, 24, Samuel Marcus Polite, 20, and Javion Marcell Matthews, 22, were charged with burglary and conspiracy to commit a crime, both felonies. They pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana and were next due in court July 18 for a pretrial hearing in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Investigators said "bank jugging" involves suspects watching bank customers leave with cash and then breaking into their vehicles at their next stop to steal the money.
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The criminal complaint alleges they rented a 2025 Ford Expedition from Hertz and drove from Texas to Southern California on July 2. The three were accused of replacing the license plate on the rental car Tuesday.
The three then "cased multiple victims for potential vehicle burglaries by driving through five separate shopping plazas in Cypress, Buena Park, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach that contained banks with the plazas," the complaint alleges.
Find out what's happening in Los Alamitos-Seal Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The three allegedly followed a man as he exited a Wells Fargo branch in Seal Beach carrying a bank bag. The three then allegedly broke into the victim's Honda Accord and grabbed the bank bag, according to the complaint.
The trio then drove to a Chase Bank branch in Cerritos and cased it for more victims, the complaint alleged.
Irvine police on July 2 investigating two vehicle break-ins spotted a suspected getaway car in a surveillance video that was a Ford Expedition and had a stolen license plate out of Irvine, police said.
On Wednesday, police tracked down the suspect vehicle with the stolen license plate and conducted surveillance on the suspects outside Irvine, police said. Irvine detectives stopped the Ford Expedition after the Seal Beach heist and found the stolen banker's bag, a fake license plate, burglary tools, a ski mask and cash, police said.
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