Costly Mistake : Man, 73, Is Robbed of Life Savings

Salvador Galindo was at a Sears store in East Los Angeles when he made a costly mistake, telling a salesman in a voice loud enough for others to hear that he would be back to buy furniture with some of the $8,000 he had in a nearby bank.

Galindo, 73, explained that his wife had been asking him for weeks to buy a new living room set for their Montebello home.

A few minutes later, as Galindo started to enter his car, police said, he felt a gun at his back and heard a man saying, “Go to the bank and take out the $8,000 or I’ll kill you.”

Soon after, the two men were at the counter of a First Interstate Bank branch, police said, the robber at Galindo’s shoulder as he cashed a check, all the while trying to signal the teller that something was wrong.

As Galindo recalled it, he told the teller, “Young girl, do you notice I’m too nervous? I can hardly sign the check.

“And she said ‘Yes,’ but she didn’t do nothing.”

Carrying Cash

The Tuesday afternoon robbery cost Galindo $8,700--the $8,000 from his bank account, plus $700 he was carrying after cashing a check at the Sears store at Soto Street and Olympic Boulevard, to pay an insurance bill. Galindo, who retired in 1979 after working for 36 years as a machine operator at an iron works, said the loss represented 80% of his savings.

Los Angeles police are investigating the robbery, but have no suspects, Detective John Colella said Friday.

Galindo said the bank manager told him that there are no pictures of the robber because cameras mounted above the bank’s doors had not been activated.

Galindo said he might have taken bolder steps if there had been a security guard at the bank.

“If they had a guard, I’ll jump or get out of the way or do something, so they can kill him,” Galindo said. “Maybe I could push him, I could knock him down.”

Bank Investigating

Officials at the First Interstate Bank branch in East Los Angeles would not comment. Bob Campbell, a spokesman for the bank’s parent company, First Interstate Bancorp, said the company’s security department is investigating the incident.

While main branches employ guards, “most of the (smaller) branches do not have guards,” Campbell said.

Surveillance cameras are turned on “if there is an awareness that a crime is being committed,” he said, but branch officials did not learn of the robbery until after Galindo contacted police.

As the two men left the bank, Detective Colella said, the robber held his pistol to Galindo’s side and ordered him to drive to an intersection about four miles away, where the robber got out of the car and ran.

Galindo said he drove around nearby streets for half an hour in search of the robber before going to police.

Galindo said he has been unable to sleep since the robbery.

“I feel so bad. I feel so tired,” he said. “I almost died.”