Photo: Michael Fernandez
Santa Barbara County – Prompting a detailed media release warning citizens about the dangers inherent in failing to maintain situational awareness when using an ATM machine, on November 21st Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover announced an armed robbery attempt that occurred in Orcutt on November 6th involving “a suspect armed with a knife.”
According to Hoover, it was at 2:00 p.m. in broad daylight on the 6th when 23-year-old Orcutt resident Michael Fernandez approached a Wells Fargo Bank patron using the bank’s exterior ATM and pulled “a previously concealed 12-inch-long kitchen knife.”
The patron immediately “fled and was not hurt” and SBSD deputies—who had been in search of Fernandez pursuant to the report of “a suspicious subject” walking along city streets while “repeatedly looking back over his shoulder” as though he was being pursued by some unknown, unseen individual—promptly engaged in an area search that led them to discover Fernandez in a nearby residential area.
As deputies spotted Fernandez and confronted him at gunpoint, he was observed discarding something into a nearby garbage can. Once Fernandez was taken into custody, the garbage can was searched and a 12-inch kitchen knife “with an eight-inch long blade” as well as a locked butterfly knife were found inside.
Fernandez was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on “several felony and misdemeanor charges,” with his bail set at $40,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
