3 Arrested After Holdup; Money Returned to Bank
Three alleged robbers were arrested Tuesday just minutes after a holdup at a Torrance bank, police said.
An officer on routine patrol happened to be in the parking lot of a strip mall in the 17400 block of Hawthorne Boulevard when the first suspect, a woman, ran out of the Great Western Bank about 9:30 a.m., Torrance Police Sgt. Ed La Londe said.
She fled in a blue car but was stopped and arrested a few blocks away, he said.
Meanwhile, two men dashed out of the bank and ran north, across Artesia Boulevard, into another strip mall. The pair entered a Ralphs supermarket in the 4300 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard and apparently tried to blend in with shoppers, but they were arrested when a witness to the robbery pointed them out as they tried to leave the store, La Londe said.
Booked on suspicion of bank robbery were Michael James, 37, David Foster, 31, and Evelyn Sanders, 25, all of Los Angeles.
Concerned that there might be other suspects, police evacuated the grocery store and a neighboring drugstore for several hours. A search turned up no other suspects, La Londe said.
Police did not disclose how much cash was taken in the holdup. La Londe said the money was returned to the bank later Tuesday.
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