By Mary Corrado
Editor
Red smoke pouring from a garbage bag - carried by two men running away from a bank - drew attention to two escaping bank robbers at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, July 6. The two offenders entered the Bank One, 2603 N. Halstead St. One gathered the customers and employees in one corner while the other displayed a gun and demanded money. The gunman then jumped the counter, pushed two witnesses into the vault room and demanded that it be opened. He had one victim place more than $86,000 into his big brown garbage bag and kept repeating, "No dye packs! No dye packs!"
The robbers then ordered everyone to lie down on the ground, nose to the floor, while they fled. Witnesses spotted them running. The robbers left the bag of money, with dye all over it, between two mailboxes just around the corner from the bank. Ten police cars responded as well as a K-9 unit. The FBI Task Force has also been called in.
Both offenders were black men in their 30's, wearing dark jeans and yellow hard hats. One wore a Waste Management vest and covered his face with a dust mask. The other wore a yellow/orange vest and a black back-support vest. |
