A Poway mother of five children admitted in a Riverside County court that she held up two Temecula banks, according to a published report, but she will turn herself in after the holidays.
Roxanne Pennock, 37, pleaded guilty to two bank robberies but is also suspected in the armed robbery of a San Diego National Bank on Poway Road and a U.S. Bank on Scripps Poway Parkway in October.
Pennock was arrested on Nov. 6 after Temecula police spotted a red minivan traveling southbound on Interstate 15. The van matched the description of a vehicle used in the robbery of a Chase Bank on Temecula Parkway.
In court Thursday, Pennock admitted to the Chase Bank robbery as well as a holdup at the Bank of America, also on Temecula Parkway, on Oct. 22, the North County Times reported.
"It was sort of a head smacker, we didn't predict that at all," said neighbor Thomas Leete, who lives across the street from Pennock. "We would never have suspected this."
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.
Neighbor Lisa Leete sympathized with the mother of five kids.
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"I'm sure she was feeling some kind of real desperation and maybe this was her only option," Lisa Leete said.
Pennock is free on $25,000 bail but was ordered to surrender herself in the French Valley courthouse on Jan. 19, the paper reported.
