Gunman Releases Hostage After Robbing Bank
A masked robber carrying two firearms robbed a Palmdale bank Tuesday and kidnapped a woman customer to help him get away, authorities said.
The woman was released unharmed a short time later, said Lt. John Crabb of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in Lancaster.
Crabb said the bandit came into the Great Western Bank branch in the 1200 block of Avenue P near the Antelope Valley Mall about 11 a.m. armed with a shotgun and a pistol and ordered bank employees and customers to the floor.
He took an undetermined amount of cash from several drawers and grabbed the woman, forcing her to drive him in her car a short distance to the mall, where he ran off with her purse.
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