Kidnappers Hold Family Hostage Overnight, Then Rob Bank

A bank employee and her family were kidnapped from their Escondido home, driven around all night in a van, then taken Thursday morning to a Bank of America to help robbers get access to the vault, authorities said.

The two men got away with an undisclosed but substantial amount of money, FBI Agent Jan Caldwell said.

“No one was injured physically, but the hostages are pretty traumatized,” he said.

The robbers apparently fled on foot. Police were using helicopters and officers on foot to scour apartment complexes near the bank in a search for the men. Police were also searching the woman’s house for clues.

The bank employee, whose name was not released, declined to speak to reporters when officers escorted her out of the bank. Caldwell said the victims gave the FBI the following account:

Two young men broke into the woman’s home Wednesday afternoon brandishing black, long-barreled semiautomatic guns. They took the woman’s husband, their two teenage children and a male adult family friend hostage. The captives’ hands and feet were bound with tape.

When the woman came home from work, she discovered the frightening scene. She was then bound and held at gunpoint.

After nightfall, the men loaded the hostages into the family’s van. One of the men then left, and the other drove the hostages around all night, occasionally parking the van. In the morning, the man took the hostages to the bank on Carmel Mountain Road in San Diego. He instructed the woman to go inside and get money. When she returned, the suspect left the hostages in the van and fled.