Police say they nabbed a female serial bank robber Friday morning in rush hour traffic, minutes after a heist at a SunTrust in Woodbridge.
The hold-up happened at 9:13 a.m., when a woman walked into the bank at 13408 Jefferson Davis Highway, near Gordon Boulevard, and handed the teller a note demanding money.
The robber implied she had a gun. The woman fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash.
An alert teller at SunTrust got the robber’s license plate number and provided police a description of her sedan, police said. Minutes later, state police Trooper Robert Hindenlang spotted the car in heavy traffic on northbound Interstate 395. Police stopped the car on I-395 at Edsall Road.
The driver, cooperative at first, began fighting with officers and was shocked with a police stun gun.
Cynthia Marie Crawford, 46, of 7761 Grandwind Drive in Lorton, was questioned through the afternoon and eventually charged in the Woodbridge heist and two other bank robberies in Fairfax County this summer, Prince William County police 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn said.
Police allege Crawford is also responsible for a June 25 robbery at the Wachovia Bank at 8994 Lorton Station Boulevard. Around 2:10 p.m. that day, a woman entered the bank, approached a teller and handed a note demanding cash.
She did the same during another robbery on July 15 at the SunTrust Bank at 9400 Richmond Highway, also in Lorton. That heist happened around 2:25 p.m. and the robbery method was the same.
Fairfax police issued a Crime Solvers alert Thursday seeking information leading to the arrest of the female robber. But she struck again first.
The SunTrust in Woodbridge was closed through the afternoon Friday. Around 11 a.m., a Papa John’s delivery man showed up with pizza for employees waiting to be interviewed by police.
Crawford was held without bond at the Prince William-Manassas regional jail pending a Monday morning arraignment. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 15.
Communities editor Kari Pugh can be reached at 703-878-8056.
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