[palantownia]

Monday, Sep 10, 2012
US - It was a bizarre bank heist, even by Los Angeles standards.

A bank manager with the Bank of America was leaving her home for work when two masked men snatched her from her garage.

They then strapped what they told her was an explosive device to her chest and instructed her to drive to her bank and give them money.

Authorities said the manager complied, taking a bag filled with cash to the back of the bank. The robbers, armed with handguns and wearing ski masks, grabbed it and sped away in a two-door car.

The robbers avoided being seen on bank video cameras and are still at large. Police said they drove away with a "large sum of money".

The bank manager was unharmed.
The LA County Sheriff's Department bomb squad detonated the device, which law enforcement sources said did not appear to be an active bomb.

In an area known for some bizarre bank robberies, what happened at the East Los Angeles Bank of America branch is quickly taking on a mythology of its own, Los Angeles Times reported.

Using a bank manager to rob their own business is rare, authorities said, let alone strapping a purported explosive device to an unwilling victim, AP reported.

Wednesday's heist bears similarities to at least two movies. Bandits, a 2001 film starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton, follows two inmates who escape from prison and start a bank robbery spree that includes kidnapping bank managers.

30 Minutes or Less involves two men who force a pizza delivery driver to rob a bank while wearing a vest with a time bomb.

It's not known how the bank manager, whose name was not released, was targeted. Sources told the LA Times that it's possible that they may have been following her from the bank.

The manager entered the bank just after 8.30am, shortly before it was supposed to open for business. She informed her colleagues inside about the device, and she collected the money.

Said Sheriff's Captain Mike Parker: "She followed instructions to throw the money out the bank's back doors."

Moments later, the bank alerted the East Los Angeles sheriff's station. An arson and explosives team arrived and carefully pried the device off the bank manager and took it outside, Capt Parker said.

A bomb squad robot rolled onto the road in front of the bank and inspected the device. Then a bomb squad specialist in full protective gear surrounded it with sandbags. Several hundred people in the area were evacuated.

Authorities investigating the heist searched the home of the bank manager on Thursday.

Boxes of evidence were removed from the bank employee's home, according to Lieutenant Neal Mongan of Huntington Park police, whose detectives are leading the kidnapping portion of the probe.