Four wanted in $1 million bank robbery

Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1998 | 4:43 a.m.

The FBI believes the same suspects are responsible for another bank robbery on Monday.

About 9 p.m. Monday, two masked men armed with guns kidnapped three family members who worked for the bank's janitorial service, said Aurelio Flores, spokesman for the FBI.

They were tied up, placed in the back of their own van and driven to the Bank of America ATM Repository on East Charleston, where they were scheduled to work, he said. They were held in the van for two hours while the kidnappers spoke with two other accomplices who were following a Loomis Fargo armored truck.

At about 11 p.m., the kidnappers used the cleaning crew's key to enter the repository with the family members, Flores said. A half hour later, two guards from the armored truck entered the repository with their own key.

They greeted the janitors and proceeded to the vault, he said.

The guards were removing $1 million in cash that was packaged and ready for pickup when they were accosted by the armed suspects.

While the suspects were disarming the guards, one of the guns went off, striking a guard in the chest, Flores said.

The suspects then took the $1 million and left through the back door in a white Chevrolet pickup truck. It was found a short distance from the scene.

The FBI was searching for three men and a women in connection with the robbery.

The guard was in stable condition at University Medical Center.

The FBI believes the suspects also robbed a Colonial Bank early Monday because the same getaway car was used.

In that robbery, an armed man approached a teller in the parking lot and took her into the bank. He instructed the other employees to open the vault, took $79,000, bound the employees and fled, Flores said.

Witnesses saw a white Chevrolet truck leaving the scene and a gray Isuzu Rodeo.