Masked gunmen escape after Hollywood-style bank heist
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two masked gunmen managed to evade authorities after a bizarre bank heist in which they strapped what they said was a bomb to the bank manager's midsection and forced her to order employees to "take out all the money" from her branch.
The bank robbers got away with an undisclosed amount of cash from the Bank of America when it opened Wednesday morning, but no one was injured in the robbery. No arrests had been made as of early Thursday.
A Los Angeles County sheriff's bomb squad disabled the device, but investigators said it wasn't an explosive.
The bank manager was snatched in front of her home Wednesday morning, said sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. She arrived at her workplace wearing a device the men had strapped to her stomach.
"She was told that it was explosives and she was ordered to go into the bank and take out all the money," Parker said. "She did do that in fear for her life."
She ordered her fellow employees to remove the cash from the bank and it was thrown to the men who were waiting outside, authorities said. Parker would only say there was "a decent amount" of money at the bank and the manager did enter the safe.
The two men, who were armed with handguns and wore ski masks, took off in a two-door car and remain at large.
Parker said the woman remained inside the bank until a bomb squad arrived and removed the device from her body. The bomb squad later disabled the item with a robot. Nearby businesses were evacuated for a few hours as a precaution.
Investigators initially said they didn't believe the manager knew the robbers but they have conducted interviews to ensure she wasn't connected to the crime.
Authorities also haven't said how the bank manager was targeted by the robbers. Investigators are trying to determine if there were any video surveillance cameras that captured the incident.
The bank robbers got away with an undisclosed amount of cash from the Bank of America when it opened Wednesday morning, but no one was injured in the robbery. No arrests had been made as of early Thursday.
A Los Angeles County sheriff's bomb squad disabled the device, but investigators said it wasn't an explosive.
The bank manager was snatched in front of her home Wednesday morning, said sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. She arrived at her workplace wearing a device the men had strapped to her stomach.
"She was told that it was explosives and she was ordered to go into the bank and take out all the money," Parker said. "She did do that in fear for her life."
She ordered her fellow employees to remove the cash from the bank and it was thrown to the men who were waiting outside, authorities said. Parker would only say there was "a decent amount" of money at the bank and the manager did enter the safe.
The two men, who were armed with handguns and wore ski masks, took off in a two-door car and remain at large.
Parker said the woman remained inside the bank until a bomb squad arrived and removed the device from her body. The bomb squad later disabled the item with a robot. Nearby businesses were evacuated for a few hours as a precaution.
Investigators initially said they didn't believe the manager knew the robbers but they have conducted interviews to ensure she wasn't connected to the crime.
Authorities also haven't said how the bank manager was targeted by the robbers. Investigators are trying to determine if there were any video surveillance cameras that captured the incident.
I'm sorry, but the picture of the robot and the bomb squad guy makes me crack up. It totally looks like the robot is reaching for his junk and he is signalling to the other officers to stay away, he has got this. In all seriousness though, I didn't even bother reading the story at all. I just commented purely on the picture.
Well as long as they're going to hit a bank they might as well pick one like Bank of Amerika that really deserves it. They steal from us, we steal from you, tit for tat. Its not like there is any rule of law left in this country any ways.
 @Blindman Bank of America Stadium? Say... isn't that where the BFF of Big Banks and Wall Street was going to have his inauguration speech until they found out  people do their laundry on Thursday and couldn't attend?
 @Blindman Bank of America won't be hurt by this one bit.  They have insurance to cover these sorts of things - all they'll do is pass along any added costs to their account holders, just as they always do.
I am still wondering why they don't have armed guards at banks....its not like they can't afford armed security at every location. Even places like India has armed guards at every branch.
 @skulls98040 Armed guards would not have helped... she was abducted outside her home and thought she had explosives strapped to her.  Guards wouldn't have had any move to make that they would imagine could prevent her death unless they let her do what the robbers wanted.
Sounds similar to the Hollywood movie SWORDFISH..... This is just another robbery in the long battle police will have in the coming years as it increases 100 fold!
 @Funky-Munky No rogue government agents, and no computer hacker, and no Halle Berry. And no shots fired, and no bombs exploding, and no flying bus. Where's the similarity?