San Diego

Employees at an Ocean Beach bank helped end the 90-minute kidnaping and attempted robbery of a 70-year-old East San Diego man Wednesday, a Police Department spokesman said.

The incident began about 7:30 a.m. when a man forced his way into the home of Mervin Brunett, 70, in the 4700 block of Polk Avenue and claimed that Brunett owed him $200, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Brunett said he didn’t know what the man was talking about. The man displayed a knife, then ransacked Brunett’s home. At one point the two men fought, Robinson said.

The assailant forced Brunett into the street, where he flagged a cab, which took them to the Peninsula Bank in the 4800 block of Newport Avenue, where Brunett has an account, Robinson said.

At the bank’s drive-up window, the attacker forced Brunett to write a check for $200, Robinson said.

Two bank tellers, Martha Hebberd, 38, and Monica Cordova, 23, notified a bank manager after they noticed blood on Brunett’s check. The bank manager asked the two women to stall while the police were called.

The manager, Jeffery Benter, 47, came outside to speak to Brunett and asked if he was all right. When Brunett said no, Benter returned to the bank to call the police again.

Police arrived and arrested Derek Wayne Hill, 29, a transient, who had a kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade, Robinson said.

Hill is being held without bail in County Jail on suspicion of kidnaping, robbery, attempted robbery and burglary, a jail spokeswoman said.

Except for cuts on his neck and hands, Brunett appeared to be in good condition, Robinson said.