Alleged violin thief also robbed a bank, prosecutors say, with note that said ‘please’ and ‘thx’

An alleged Orange County bank robber also is accused of stealing high-end violins. For more than two years, federal prosecutors allege, Mark Meng stole high-end violins across the country — ingratiating himself to vendors by posing as a collector who merely wanted to borrow and try them out, then ghosting those vendors and reselling them to an unknowing violin dealer in Los Angeles. The 57-year-old Irvine man — who also is accused of robbing a bank with a pithy thank-you note and fleeing in a white minivan — now faces charges of wire fraud and bank robbery, according to a federal complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. So, prosecutors say, Meng was aware he was under federal investigation when, on April 2, he allegedly robbed a U.S. Bank branch on Barranca Parkway in Irvine. According to the federal complaint, Meng was wearing latex gloves, a baseball cap, dark sunglasses, a blue bandanna covering the lower half of his face, and a “USA” T-shirt.