$10,000 Reward Offered for 4 Bank Robbers

Wells Fargo Bank offered a $10,000 reward Wednesday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of robbers who stole more than $430,000 in a Sept. 5 bank robbery in Tarzana.

The same four bandits are believed to have robbed six Los Angeles-area banks this year, including three Wells Fargo branches, police said.

In the Tarzana holdup, the gunmen ordered about three dozen employees and bank customers to stand against a wall while the vault was looted, Los Angeles Police Lt. Gabe Ornelas said. Similar tactics have been used in other holdups and are more dangerous to employees and customers than “note jobs,” in which a single robber usually passes a note to a teller, he said.

Seven out of every 10 bank robbers is caught, Ornelas said. The reward should greatly increase the chance that this group will be caught as well, he added.

“People will do things for money,” Ornelas said. “They might have called us anyway, but the money helps them make up their minds.”