Update: Bank Robber Chase Forced Lockdown of Four Mission Viejo Schools

Editor's note: Until the end of 2011, Patch will be republishing some of the year's biggest news stories in Mission Viejo.

New details are emerging about how a police chase for a possible Irvine bank robber led to a lockdown of four Mission Viejo Schools.

The search led police to request a lockdown at Mission Viejo High, La Paz Intermediate, Esperanza Special Intermediate and High School and Linda Vista Elementary schools around 1 p.m. The lockdown was lifted at 1:40 p.m.

When the schools were put on lockdown, dogs were called to the scene and a helicoptor was sent into the air after a sheriff's deputy spotted a man fitting the description of an Irvine bank robber this morning, Sgt. Sandi Kirsch with the Orange County Sheriff's Department said.

The possible bank robber fled police and was last seen driving around Los Alisos and Jeronimo.

Soon after, about 12:45 p.m., police received a phone call from a woman who said a man who fit the description of the possible bank robber asked to borrow her car.

That man was last seen jumping a backyard fence in the area of La Paz and Marguerite, Kirsch said.

Soon after, a father and son flagged down police after seeing a man hiding beneath a car. A deputy attempted to arrest the man, but he got away, Kirsh said.

Around 1 p.m. police began locking down the schools.

About that time, a school resource officer spotted someone on La Paz heading toward the school track who roughly fit the man's description.

"Then everybody shifts their focus on that kid," Kirsch said. "They detain him and find out it's just this kid and their two buddies who skipped school to smoke."

Meanwhile police have been unable to locate the original suspect.

How should residents respond?

"Just be aware of your surroundings," Kirsch said. "If someone doesn't look like a part of the neighborhood, call us."

She said residents should also write down the license plate numbers of any suspicious cars.

But she added there is no reason to think the possible bank robber is dangerous. She said he was trying to escape police, but showed no signs of trying to hurt anyone.

See also: Robber Hits Lake Forest Citibank

Police are now confident that two Irvine banks were robbed by the same man this morning, said Lt. Julia Engen with the Irvine Police Department.

At 10:50 a.m. Chase Bank on Quali Hill Parkway in Irvine was robbed. Then at 11:20 a.m. Comerica Bank on Irvine Center Drive was robbed.

In both cases the man showed no weapon, but verbally demanded money.

The man was described as white, over six feet tall, in his late 20s or early 30s wearing a grayish, tall beanie cap, long-sleeved, plaid shirt and blue jeans. He had facial scruff, Engen said.