Man pleads guilty to robbing credit union at knifepoint

Fire engulfs Fallbrook home, spreads to brush, is put out FALLBROOK

A fire that broke out at a Fallbrook home Friday morning spread to surrounding vegetation, but firefighters halted the blaze at a quarter-acre.

The blaze was reported just before 4:45 a.m. at a 3,000-square-foot house on Sandia Creek Drive a few miles north of downtown Fallbrook, San Diego County Sheriff ’s Lt. Pat McEvoy said.

North County Fire Protection District crews responded and found the structure fully engulfed, Cal Fire Capt. Thomas Shoots

SAN DIEGO

A man pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to robbing a teller at knifepoint in September at a La Mesa credit union.

Rafeek Omar Karamat, 35, of San Diego, pleaded guilty to a federal bank robbery charge and faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced. He admitted to robbing a teller at the Navy Federal Credit Union branch on Grossmont Boulevard.

Just before 10 a.m. Sept. 30, Karamat approached the teller, brandished a knife, and said, “Give me money,” and “give me what I came for,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The teller gave him about $2,500 in cash and Karamat fled in a white Ford Ranger, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. La Mesa police spotted Karamat’s pickup and followed him west into San Diego, eventually stopping him near Winona and Monroe avenues in Talmadge.

Officers found the cash inside the truck, court documents state, and Karamat admitted to investigators that he robbed the credit union.