‘Stalwart Citizen,’ 77, Under Arrest After a ‘Sad’ Bank Robbery

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Faced with a failing business and his wife’s mounting medical bills, 77-year-old Ray Lawrence Boeger allegedly put behind him a lifetime of obeying the law and picked up a gun.

The bank robbery suspect was released Thursday on $25,000 bail by a federal magistrate who acknowledged Boeger’s community service as a founder of Golden West College and a member of a Seal Beach citizens commission.

Those accomplishments stand in stark contrast to the charge Boeger, of Westminster, now faces--that Wednesday afternoon he donned a fake beard, tucked a semiautomatic gun into his waistband, and held up the World Savings & Loan in Huntington Beach.

“Mind-boggling,” is the how one of Boeger’s relatives described the alleged crime.

Boeger was arrested at his home Wednesday about two hours after witnesses jotted down his license plate number as he slowly drove away from the savings and loan, Lt. Dan Johnson said.

The robber who entered the bank at 1:45 p.m. was described by tellers as a frail, polite senior citizen who apologetically asked for $2,500, Johnson said.

“When he asked for the money, the teller asked him if he had an account, and he said, ‘No, but I have this gun,’ ” said Johnson, who described the crime as a “sad, halfhearted” robbery.

The gunman thanked the teller before slowly leaving the bank with a bag of cash. Witnesses said that as he drove away in his 1980 Cadillac, explosive dye packs secreted in the stolen money burst, coating the car’s interior with the bright red dye, Johnson said.

Police were waiting for Boeger at his Westminster home when he arrived. They seized the stolen money and an unloaded semiautomatic handgun in the car, along with ammunition nearby, according to Johnson and court documents.

“He got home after stopping at a bar for a few drinks, probably because the robbery didn’t go well,” Johnson said. “When we questioned him, he said he needed money because his wife had medical bills and his import-export business was struggling.”

A bartender at the My Place lounge in Huntington Beach said a frail, unshaven Boeger came in about 2 p.m., drank two draft beers and mused aloud about starting up a business making electric golf carts. He paid for his drinks with small bills pulled from a roll held together by a paper clip, bartender Darren Kerr said.

“He seemed pretty pleasant . . . and I didn’t see any [large amount of] money,” Kerr said. “When I heard what happened--well, it’s just really sad that he had to do that.”

On Thursday, Boeger was dressed in slacks and a white, short-sleeve, button-down shirt as he sat on a courtroom bench normally reserved for the public. He did not enter a plea, but briefly answered questions from U.S. Magistrate Elgin Edwards indicating that he understood the details of his release.

Among other things, Boeger was asked to surrender his passport and a gun collection belonging to his son.

“In court, he introduced the [FBI] agents who took him into custody to his wife as ‘fine gentlemen I met yesterday,’ ” said H. Dean Steward, Boeger’s deputy federal public defender. “That’s the kind of guy he is. He is a stalwart citizen of Orange County who has been pushed into a corner.”