GUTSY—Jackie Ubhi and Rick DellaMonica stayed on the trail of a bank robber who struck a Bank of America on L.A. Avenue. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers Two Simi residents were honored by the City Council on Monday for their quick and courageous action that ultimately led to the identification and arrest of a suspected serial bank robber.

On Nov. 26 at about 5 p.m., a man entered the Bank of America at 1307 E. Los Angeles Ave., approached a bank teller, displayed what looked like a handgun and demanded money. At the time, Rick DellaMonica of Simi Valley was visiting his wife, Cheryl, a personal banker.

DellaMonica had finished his conversation and was ready to leave, but his wife wanted him to say goodbye to merchant teller Vicki Krohn first. He waited while Krohn was with a customer. Unbeknownst to him and others, that customer was robbing the bank.

“The gentleman was kind of taking a little bit longer time,” DellaMonica recalled.

Krohn, who’s been in banking for 36 years, had been robbed before. This particular shakedown didn’t feel real, she said, though it still left her frightened.

“He just looked so pathetic to me. . . . He didn’t look like a professional. He had no bag, no nothing. He didn’t even have his face covered.”

As the man fled the building, Krohn alerted the bank. DellaMonica, along with bank staff members, ran outside to see where the robber was headed.

Despite knowing that he might be following an armed and dangerous man, DellaMonica jumped in his truck to stay in pursuit. Personal banker Jackie Ubhi went with him.

The two drove slowly through the Mountain Gate Plaza shopping center parking lot, keeping a lookout for the man who they’d last seen on foot; DellaMonica flagged the car behind him to go around. When it did, DellaMonica realized the driver was the bank robber.

The pair had a clear shot of the license plate, but they didn’t have a cellphone to call the police or a pen to write the number down. They repeated the number a couple of times out loud, but fearing they’d gotten it wrong, DellaMonica decided to give chase to double-check.

He followed the subject for a few miles to the intersection of Cochran Street and Erringer Road. Ubhi said she was a bit worried since they didn’t know if the bank robber was armed.

“I said, ‘Rick, he might have a gun,’ because Rick was going too close to him,” she said. “(The subject) knew that we were following him because he turned (to look) back a couple times.”

Once they had the plate number, DellaMonica and Ubhi told a passing motorist to call 911 and give the police the direction of travel. The motorist complied.

Simi Police Capt. Ron Chambers said relaying this information to the authorities was crucial to the eventual capture of the robber.

“The significance of that phone call cannot be overstated as it triggered a series of critical events that would later lead to the identification and arrest of the suspect in San Diego,” Chambers said at Monday’s council meeting.

The man,Gregory Cole, 49, of Idaho was wanted in connection with two other bank robberies, one of them in Thousand Oaks just days earlier. The Simi robbery was his third in a matter of weeks, Chambers said.

Though it was a bit of a frightening experience now that she looks back on it, Ubhi, who’d been robbed twice before, said she wasn’t really thinking about that at the time.

“I was just excited that we were able to find him, that we were able to follow him, that we got him,” she said. “So it was a little excitement, but it was a little scary.”

Chambers said the police would normally recommend that citizens just be good witnesses in such situations and not pursue individuals who may pose a danger. He said that in this case, however, DellaMonica and Ubhi’s willingness to put themselves in harm’s way helped bring a “very dangerous predator” to justice.

“Because they were willing to take steps to identify that person it certainly helped in the resolution of the case,” he said.

DellaMonica said that when he heard about the arrest a few days after the robbery, he felt relieved.

“It worked, everything came together,” he said. “It was a good feeling knowing that they caught him.”

Mayor Paul Miller commended DellaMonica for his bravery when he was presented with the certificate of recognition on Monday.

“I think you may have put your life at risk, but as a good citizen you did what you needed to do and that’s what it’s all about,” Miller said. “The police can’t do it all by themselves—it’s people like you that make a difference.”

Ubhi was unable to attend the meeting on Monday, but she said in an interview with the Acorn Tuesday that it felt “very nice” to be honored.