Ex-con robbed bank again, police say SAN FRANCISCO

A woman recently released after serving time in federal prison for a series of San Francisco bank robberies held up one of the same banks she targeted the first time around, authorities said.

Elisa Monique Lipkins, 42, will appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco this week on a complaint charging her with robbing the Bank of America at 3565 California St. of $7,020 last month.

Lipkins tried to rob the same bank during a 2004 robbery spree that led to a 70-month federal prison sentence and an order to pay nearly $16,000 in restitution. She served part of that sentence and was released to a halfway house on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland, court records show.

On Dec. 23, Lipkins checked out of the halfway house shortly after 8 a.m. and showed up at the bank three hours later, FBI Special Agent Brian Guy wrote in an affidavit. She handed a teller a deposit slip on which was written, "All the money" and told her, "Don't touch the alarm, do not press the alarm!" Guy wrote.

The robber kept her right hand in her jacket pocket, apparently simulating a weapon, and then said, "Give me the big bills, do it now," according to the affidavit. The teller began counting out the bills very slowly, prompting the robber to grab the money, Guy wrote.

Another FBI agent and a halfway-house employee recognized Lipkins on a bank-surveillance photo, and she was arrested at the halfway house, Guy said. Lipkins is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.