Woman arrested for Poway bank robberies

According to Detective Sgt. Bill Giltner with the Poway Sheriffs station, an arrest warrant was served mid-afternoon for Pennock during a traffic stop near her home. She was transported and booked into Las Colinas Women’s Facility in Santee, he said.

Pennock, 37, was out on $25,000 bail from a Riverside County jail for the Oct. 22 holdup at Bank of America and the Nov. 6 robbery at Chase Bank, both in Temecula. She recently accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors for a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of robbery, in exchange for burglary charges being dropped, according to Riverside County DA spokesman John Hall.

Pennock was expected to turn herself in Jan. 19 at the French Valley courthouse in the southwest portion of Riverside County.

She was arrested Nov. 6 fleeing in a red minivan from the Chase Bank robbery by Temecula police who allegedly found evidence from that robbery in her car.

Meanwhile, Poway Detectives Norm Hubbert and Chris Cross were investigating Pennock’s alleged connection to the Poway incidents: the Sept. 30 heist at San Diego National Bank on Poway Road; and the Oct. 13 robbery at the U.S. Bank on the corner of Pomerado Road and Scripps Poway Parkway. They recently submitted their report to the San Diego County district attorney for evaluation, said DA spokesman Paul Levikow.

Surveillance tapes from the FBI show a female suspect brandishing a semi-automatic pistol during the first Poway holdup on Sept. 30.

The bandit, described as being female, about 5 feet, 2 inches tall, wore a dark blue hooded sweatshirt and dark pants. She fled on foot to a nearby creek bed behind UltraStar Cinema on the corner of Poway and Community roads.

During an Oct. 13 robbery, a female bandit matching a similar height to the robber in the Sept. 30 incident was also captured on tape.

That robber spoke continually on a cell phone during the holdup, according to FBI officials.

Pennock is married and the mother of five children.