‘Granny Bandit’ suspect arrested

FONTANA, Calif. – A crime analyst who put together a flier for the “Granny Bandit” wanted in a series of armed robberies outside department stores helped police arrest the woman Wednesday after she spotted the suspect during her lunch break, police said.

Dodi Wasbotten, 51, was taken into custody hours after a woman reported being held up outside a Target store by a woman who was wearing a muumuu and covered her face with a scarf.

A woman matching the suspect’s description was involved in three other stickups since Sunday.

Women shoppers described being robbed in store parking lots by a gun-toting, middle-aged or elderly woman who covered her face. They described her as being between 50 and 80 years old.

Sgt. Billy Green said he wasn’t sure why some of the victims described the suspect as in her eighties.

“I can only speculate that it had to do with the way she was dressed in a muumuu. She had a scarf and big sunglasses covering her face. She had a weathered face,” Green said.