B of A Offers $100,000 for Capture of Robbers

A $100,000 reward was announced Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of the “Early Bird” bandits, who are believed to have committed one of the largest bank robberies in Los Angeles history as well as at least six other violent Southern California holdups.

Investigators are searching for three men who allegedly committed the robberies over an 18-month period. They got their nickname because they forced their way into bank branches as employees were arriving for work in the morning.

The gang is believed to be responsible for the July 1995 robbery of a Bank of America branch in Newhall that netted about $750,000, one of the most lucrative in the area’s history. All six of the other robberies were of branches of the Bank of America, which is offering the reward.

During their most recent holdup, in Paramount a week ago, the robbers pistol-whipped two employees, causing them to be hospitalized, according to the FBI.

“We consider them not only armed and dangerous, but vicious. We want them off the streets,” said Charles Parson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

Each time the group approached a bank, they disguised themselves in different uniforms, once as security guards, another time as construction workers and once as postal workers, agents said.

During the Newhall robbery, the robbers met the bank manager outside, handed him what they said was a bomb and forced him into the bank, investigators said. The suspects were wearing sunglasses and helmets as they ordered two other employees to open the vault and empty money into trash bags. Before escaping, they tied up the bank workers and tried to lock them in the vault, investigators said. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said the alleged bomb turned out to be a bag of firecrackers and road flares.

The gang also allegedly committed holdups at branches in Bakersfield, Norco, Thousand Oaks, Santa Ana and Fullerton starting in October 1994. FBI and Bank of America officials would not divulge how much money was stolen from those branches because they do want to encourage more robberies.

Across Southern California, the rate of bank holdups has fallen 58% since 1992, when there were a record 2,641. In 1995, there were 1,122 bank robberies. But the Los Angeles area still has the most bank robberies of any U.S metropolitan area, agents said.

Bank of America officials said they offered the reward, the bank’s largest ever, more to ensure the safety of workers than to get the money back.

“Bank of America wants criminals to know we are not going to tolerate violence against our employees or our customers,” said Liam McGee, a group executive vice president.

Authorities said they do not know why the bandits, described by witnesses as black men in their 20s and 30s, have chosen to target Bank of America.

Maybe, Parsons said, it was out of habit.

“It’s like the sports figure who wears the same hat until he loses,” he said.

Anyone with knowledge about the crimes is asked to call the FBI.