Suspect in two Palm Desert bank robberies arrested

Police have arrested a 59-year-old Anaheim man on suspicion of carrying out two recent bank robberies that occurred in Palm Desert on June 26 and July 11.

Reese Westenberger was taken into custody on Tuesday, July 23, and booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on two counts of robbery, according to a press release from the Riverside County Sheriff's Office. Westenberger was arrested in the 20 block of W. Beacon Ave. in Anaheim.

Deputies had been dispatched at 12:21 p.m. on Thursday, July 11 to a business on the 73-000 block of Highway 111 in response to an alarm going off. Investigators said Westenberger did not use weapons during the incident, and no injuries were reported. He was said to have been wearing a light-colored baseball-style hat, a dark-colored t-shirt and dark jeans.

More: Suspect at large after bank robbery in Palm Desert

At around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, the department said a man had demanded money from a bank teller in the 72-000 block of Highway 111 and then fled on foot after receiving an undisclosed amount of cash.

More: Deputies searching for suspect in Palm Desert bank robbery, asking for help from public

Previous reporting by Tom Coulter and Ani Gasparyan was used in this report.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Suspect in two Palm Desert bank robberies arrested