A Poway mother of five children, two of them step kids, is sitting in a jail cell. Roxanne Pennock, 37, is suspected of robbing at least four banks in Southern California, including two in North County.
F.B.I. agents said Pennock is a suspect in the armed robbery of a San Diego National Bank on Poway Road and a U.S. Bank on Scripps Poway Parkway. Both banks were robbed in October.
Last Friday, Temecula Police spotted a red minivan traveling southbound on Interstate 15. The van matched the description of a vehicle used in a robbery at a Chase Bank on Temecula Road.
Officers pulled over the vehicle just south of state route 76. Pennock was driving and investigators said evidence linking her to the robbery was found inside the minivan.
Investigators believe Pennock may also be responsible for last month's robbery of a Bank of America in Temecula.
"It was sort of a head smacker, we didn't predict that at all," said neighbor Thomas Leete. Leete lives across the street from Pennock. "We would never have suspected this," he said.
Another neighbor who didn't want to be identified said Pennock and her family have been in big financial trouble in the past few months.
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Neighbor Lisa Leete sympathized with the mother of five kids. "I'm sure she was feeling some kind of real desperation and maybe this was her only option," Lisa Leete said.
Pennock's husband declined to comment about the allegations.
