October 13, 2021 – Ventura County, Ca.
It happens all the time in the movies of a certain era: a bank robbery is meticulously planned and pulled off without a hitch, and the cops just can’t figure out how the crooks did it…until a meek bank teller is caught buying his wife a mink coat and is soon revealed as the mastermind of a classic “inside job.”
That film noir era is by now a hoary relic celebrated on cable television systems at the high end
of the TV dial, but apparently some with criminal intent and little worldly experience find those
plotlines credible enough to put into use in today’s world.
Evidence of that came on the night ofOctober 5 th when 20-year-old Oxnard resident Zander Harris and 18-year-old Camarillo residentErik Hagen were arrested pursuant to a brief investigation into an armed robbery reported as occurring at 9:00 p.m. that evening.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Steve Michalec, deputies responding to the scene of “a reported armed robbery” gathered witness statements indicating that “a male suspect entered the business with a firearm and demanded cash and merchandise.” With his booty in hand, the suspect then reportedly “fled the area in a black hatchback style vehicle.”
With Camarillo Patrol Services, the Camarillo Special Enforcement Detail, and the VCSD Major Crimes Bureau quickly on the scene and investigating the crime, Harris was identified as the robbery suspect. A short time later, with search warrant in hand, deputies arrived at Harris’ residence and discovered “evidence which tied Harris to the crime.”
It was soon discovered that Harris had at one time been an employee of the business he’d robbed and that he and Hagen—a current employee at the business who had allegedly faced down the gunman—were friends and had “formulated the plan for a staged robbery.”
A second search warrant lead deputies to Hagen’s residence where “evidence was located that tied Hagen to the crime.”
Both Harris and Hagen were arrested and transported to Ventura County Jail, where they were booked on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, grand theft, and carrying out their crime with the use of a loaded firearm. Their bail was set at $150,000 each.
