Two robbers kidnapped the manager of a branch of Bank of America and held her overnight. The following day she was sent into work with a device strapped to her that she had been told was a bomb. As instructed, she showed it to colleagues and then emptied the safes before throwing the money to the thieves, who escaped in a getaway car.
The LA Time reported that the woman exited the bank unharmed after a robot had been used to remove and make safe the device, which investigators said was not explosive.
It has not yet been made public how much money was taken in the robbery, but authorities are searching for two suspects who fled in a white car.
The LA Times spoke to William J. Rehder. a retired FBI special agent who spent decades investigating bank robberies, who said he recalled several similar robberies in the 1970s and 1980s but not that many in recent years.
“We had an incident where they forced the person to take the money then drove them around downtown [Los Angeles] and dumped them out of the car telling them the device was still live,” he said, adding that the device was not armed,” he said.