Long Beach : Three Rewarded for Helping Police Catch Bank Robbers

Two student photographers and a bank customer who hunted down two Wells Fargo Bank robbers last spring claimed their rewards this week--company stock, U.S. savings bonds and three miniature stagecoach treasure boxes.

The three Long Beach residents were honored by the FBI and bank officials for tailing two armed robbers who stole $11,000 from Wells Fargo’s Los Altos branch April 18, according to bank spokesman Wes Lockwood.

Vicki Kalar and Leigh Ann Cuttone photographed the thieves as they entered and left four banks in the area. Then the women called 911 and Long Beach police, Lockwood said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Adam Hammad was doing his banking in the branch during the hold-up and followed the thieves “at a safe distance,” signaling a Long Beach police car that was already responding to the women’s call.

Kalar and Cuttone were each rewarded with $1,000 savings bonds. Hammad received 25 shares of Wells Fargo stock valued at $1,900. And all three took home miniature replicas of treasure boxes carried on Wells Fargo stagecoaches in the mid 1800s, Lockwood said.