Another Tunnel Found by Police Probing Heist

Los Angeles police detectives combing underground storm drains for evidence into last weekend’s tunnel burglary of a Westside bank found another tunnel Wednesday--this one 100 feet long--leading toward a savings and loan office in Beverly Hills.

Police blocked traffic on La Cienega Boulevard for more than two hours Wednesday afternoon until they could determine that the tunnel had not undermined the pavement above.

It was not immediately clear when the tunnel was dug or even how close it got to the Union Federal Savings & Loan Assn. at the corner of La Cienega and Wilshire boulevards. The association’s vault was not penetrated, and the bank’s office manager, Harriet Davis, referred questions to police.

“Our supposition is that the purpose of the tunnel was an effort to reach (Union Federal),” said Cmdr. William Booth, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. He said there was no explanation of why the shaft was abandoned before it reached the savings and loan building.

Booth said the mouth of tunnel, apparently cut from the wall of a storm drain, had been concealed “in some way.” Some construction equipment was found inside, Booth said.

He declined to estimate the tunnel’s width or height except to note, “It was big enough for a man to get through” with little difficulty.

Although the tunnel was found in Beverly Hills, detectives there opted to turn the case over to Los Angeles police, who, along with FBI agents, are investigating last weekend’s burrowing burglary of the Bank of America branch at La Cienega and Pico boulevards, about a mile to the south.

The burglars who tunneled their way into the Bank of America vault and got away with $91,000 may be responsible for a similar heist in which $190,000 was taken last year from a First Interstate Bank branch in Hollywood, police have said.