9-Hour Hunt for O.C. Robbers Proves Fruitless

Dozens of terrified residents of a massive townhouse complex hid in their homes for about nine hours Friday while police SWAT teams searched door-to-door for three gunmen fleeing a botched bank robbery.

Police sealed off the Rossmoor Townhouse complex on Montecito Road shortly after the 11 a.m. robbery, ordering people to remain locked in their apartments and preventing about 200 residents from returning to their homes.

At 8:20 p.m., the unsuccessful search was ended and police told residents it was safe to return. But many were still recovering from the trauma of being separated from family members who were trapped inside.

“My wife was just hysterical because our (17-year-old) daughter had to stay inside our apartment all day long,” said Jay Huett. “We’ve been calling and calling almost every five to 10 minutes, just to let her know that we’re OK and to find out that she’s OK.”

Michelle Morris, who was in tears, said she was forced to sit on the floor of her apartment for hours.

“It was really scary. My mom called and I heard her voice and I just started to cry,” she said. “I didn’t know if my family was going to be let back in, or if I was going to be in here by myself all night.”

Morris’ mother, Betty, said: “It is a very helpless feeling. You try and stay calm, but it’s a natural instinct to want to run in there and get her. I felt that way all day long.”

The robbery began when two men wearing ski masks and armed with shotguns entered the Bank of America at 12171 Seal Beach Blvd. Witnesses said the six to eight employees were ordered to lay on the floor, and at least one female teller was pistol-whipped in the face.

Witnesses said the robbers escaped with at least one bag stuffed with money. But the bag had been rigged, and it exploded with red dye as the gunmen fled out the back door.

Witnesses said the robber carrying the bag dropped it, but it was unclear whether the men escaped with any money.

The two gunmen jumped into a black Jeep Cherokee behind the bank, driven by a third man. Police arrived just as the robbers tried to escape, triggering a wild chase with both cars skidding in circles throughout the parking lot for several minutes.

The chase took place in front of dozens of people going to lunch in the corner shopping mall--the Rossmoor Shopping Center--where the bank is located.

“I saw police chasing them in the parking lot at a real high speed,” said Mark Castaneda, 21, an employee at the nearby Rossmoor Athletic Club. “One of the cop cars almost lost control. I walked out and saw money flying around in the alley. A lot of it had red ink on it.”

Randy Olsen, another witness, said: “There was a lot of panic. People were hysterical, hollering, ‘There’s been a robbery!’ ”

The robbers’ car finally drove out of the parking lot and into an alley behind the Rossmoor Townhouse complex, where they jumped out of the vehicle and fled into the buildings.

Police said they quickly surrounded the complex and were confident the robbers were trapped inside. But it was nearly four hours until SWAT teams were in place to begin conducting the door-to-door search.

The tense search disrupted lives throughout the usually quiet Seal Beach neighborhood of middle-class townhomes.

At Rossmoor Elementary School, officials called children in from the playground shortly after the robbery occurred and were careful to release them only to parents at the end of the day.

Arlene Terry, 38, a mother of two, was supposed to pick up a friend’s child at Rossmoor Elementary School, when she discovered that the school was refusing to release students to anyone but their own parents. The same was true at the nearby McAuliffe Middle School.

David Morris, 14, a student at nearby Los Alamitos High School, learned from a friend at school that someone had robbed the bank and called his sister, Michelle Morris, 18, at home to tell her.

“I told her to lock the doors, all the windows, and go and hide in the closet,” he said.

Tamye Ford, 25, said as she watched the search that she was worried about her mother, still trapped inside their home.

“I called her on the phone. She’s OK,” Ford said. “But she said there’s SWAT teams jumping onto the patio.”

About 73 residents evacuated from the complex gathered at a Red Cross center in north Seal Beach. Dozens more waited on sidewalks and nearby restaurants in the Rossmoor Shopping Center for police to declare the area safe.

But even after officers declared that people could return home, many said they were too frightened to do so.

Maryanne Porter, who had been trapped in her home with her son, left when police completed their search.

“I just don’t feel safe here right now,” she said. “I think there’s probably a lot of us who won’t stay here tonight. I’m ready to get a room, take a hot shower and relax.”

As people returned to their homes, Los Alamitos Lt. Duane Swearingen said, police were escorting them to their units and, if requested, officers searched the home. He said they would maintain a heavy patrol all night.

“Obviously, we didn’t find them, so we’re not thinking they’re still here,” he said. “We searched the entire complex. The search revealed nothing, and we did a thorough search.”

“We have the area secure,” he said. “There is no danger to the area.” Swearingen said police inspected trash cans, car ports, attics and patio areas. The search was difficult because the complex has many potential hiding places.

Asked how the robbers could have escaped, Swearingen said, “Maybe we didn’t get the perimeter set up fast enough, and they got out. They could have gotten quite far in a minute or two.”

He said the four hours it took to get the SWAT teams in place was not unreasonably long.

Police from Seal Beach, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Westminster and Los Alamitos, along with Orange County sheriff’s deputies, searched the area.

Times staff writers David A. Avila, Greg Hernandez and David Reyes and correspondent Debra Cano contributed to this story.

Search for Gunmen

1. Bank of America branch robbed about 11 a.m.

2. Police surrounded townhouse complex and homes in the 12100 block of Montecito Road and evacuated about 200 people

3. American Red Cross set up relief center for evacuees at the North Seal Beach Community Center