OXNARD : 3 Armed Robbers Stage Bank Takeover

In Ventura County’s first bank robbery of the year, three men on Wednesday staged a violent takeover of the American Savings Bank in Oxnard and made off with a substantial amount of cash from the vault, authorities said.

The robbery occurred after three men entered the bank at 560 S. A St. about 9:15 a.m. and one asked a teller for change for a dollar, authorities said. He then pointed a gun at the teller’s face, vaulted over the counter and forced her to lie on the ground.

A second suspect also vaulted over the counter, pointed a gun at the bank’s assistant manager and ordered her to lie down, authorities said. The third suspect held a gun to the head of an employee who had been talking on a phone across the room and told her to hang up.

Two customers and a repairman also were ordered to the ground.

One robber forced the assistant manager into the vault, where he stuffed money into a white pillow case, authorities said. All three men ran out the rear door of the bank and were last seen running north down an alley, then east on 5th Street toward Oxnard Boulevard.

During the robbery, the suspects threatened to kill the employees and customers as they barked orders at them.

“There was a lot of yelling, frantic statements, threats, gestures, things like that,” said FBI Agent Larry Dick, who is investigating the case.

Investigators believe the robbers came from the Los Angeles area, where such takeover robberies are more common. Dick said Ventura County has had only one other takeover robbery similar to Wednesday’s. That occurred in July, 1992, at the Wells Fargo on Chestnut Street in Ventura.

Authorities today will review the videotape from a surveillance camera that was running in the bank. Dick said those pictures will be compared to suspects in other takeover robberies.