A takeover robbery occurred at Washington Mutual Bank, corner of Sunset and La Cruz, on Monday evening, shortly before closing. It was the fifth bank robbery in Pacific Palisades this year, following two at Bank of America, one at Citibank and one at First Federal. Police said that a single suspect, described as a white male in his 60s, entered the bank with a handgun at approximately 5:35 p.m. The suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of money and left what appeared to be an explosive device in the shape of a pipe bomb. The employees were evacuated, the area was sealed off for public safety, and the LAPD bomb squad responded with a remote-controlled robot used to handle and move suspicious devices. Morgan Genser, a freelance photographer, was watching from Sunset when the robot entered the bank. “I heard the police shout, ‘Fire in the hole!’ and then there was an explosion,” he said. “I was standing 150 feet away and it was still pretty loud.” LAPD Senior Lead Officer Chris Ragsdale, who was on duty and one of the first policemen to arrive at the scene, said he believed it was not a charged device. He explained that in such situations, “the bomb squad detonates [the device] with a secondary device in a protected zone. It is then taken into custody as evidence and for further examination.” According to FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller, the suspect was about 6 ft. or taller, unshaven, with gray hair and a slim build. He was wearing a straw hat, dark pants and a plaid shirt. Eimiller added that the unidentified suspect is known as the “Armed Old-Man” bandit, and is “a bandit that we believe has robbed at least six banks,” including one in Glendale on August 17. A police report confirmed that the suspect has been connected to three robberies, two in the San Fernando Valley and one in Glendale. Meanwhile, a July 15 Los Angeles Times article referred to a “Senior Citizen Bandit” believed to have been responsible for three Orange County bank robberies, and questioned “whether there’s any chance under the warm California sun that he’s James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, a crime figure legend in Boston and on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.” The suspect responsible for Monday’s robbery “victimized multiple tellers and asked for large bills,” Eimiller said, describing what is known as a takeover robbery. “He also threatened to detonate the device.” In addition to officers from the bomb squad, 16 uniformed patrol officers and a patrol supervisor responded to the scene, as well as detectives from the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division and Criminal Conspiracy Division and special agents from the FBI. Sunset was closed off in both directions from Carey to Swarthmore. Ragsdale was at Chautauqua and Sunset when he received the call about the robbery, and responded in just under a minute. “The [bank] employees were across the street by the pharmacy [Pharmaca],” said Ragsdale, who put out a request for eight units (16 officers). “Not far from [the employees] was a pile of money dumped by the suspect, still smoldering with the red dye.” A dye pack is a tool often used by banks because it explodes over the stolen money, thus making it unusable by the robber. The Robbery Homicide Division and the FBI are handling the investigation. Washington Mutual opened and was fully functioning at 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
