3 Gunmen Escape After Heist From Armored Car at Bank

Three men wearing ski masks and believed to have been armed with high-powered weapons held up an armored car and its guards Thursday outside a Diamond Bar bank, then fled in a vehicle that had been carjacked earlier this week, authorities said.

The FBI immediately began the search for the trio, who escaped in a 1996 Ford Expedition, officials said. The getaway vehicle was carjacked Tuesday in Lost Hills from a Calabasas woman who was sprayed with a chemical during the robbery, a sheriff’s lieutenant said. The bandits abandoned the vehicle less than a mile away, sheriff’s officials said.

“This was a carefully executed heist,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Roosevelt Blow.

The bank robbery occurred shortly after 8 a.m., when two guards in an armored car were delivering money to the Bank of America branch in the 1100 block of Diamond Bar Boulevard. One guard left the vehicle and was confronted by the three robbers, Blow said.

“The men, who appeared to be armed with automatic-type weapons and were wearing ski masks, ordered the guard to lay on the ground,” Blow said. “The guard complied. The suspects then removed the money sacks from the rear of the armored car and fled the scene in their vehicle.”

Neither guard from Armored Transport Services was injured and no shots were fired, Blow said.

The getaway vehicle was found in Diamond Bar, he said.

FBI agents from the bureau’s West Covina office and officials at Armored Transport Services refused to comment on the heist.

Bank of America officials said they could not recall any other recent armored car robberies at one of their bank branches. They declined to say how much money may have been stolen in Thursday’s heist.