Laurel police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are looking for three to four men who robbed an armored truck outside the Bank of America branch at Laurel Shopping Center today, city spokesman James Collins said.

Collins said city police received a call shortly after 10:30 a.m. reporting the armed robbery of the Bank of America.

Upon arriving, however, police found that the men had instead robbed a Loomis armored truck transferring money at the branch.
 
Collins said an armored truck security guard had opened the truck when three to four men holding automatic weapons — one of which was described by a witness as a military-style M-16 — demanded he turn over the money.

Collins said that after taking a bag of money — Loomis would not say how much money was in the bag — the men fled in a blue Jeep Liberty. Collins said that the security guard fired three to six shots, and shattered the Jeep’s rear window, but that it did not appear as if any of the men were struck by the bullets. None of the men returned fire at the security guard.

After fleeing the scene, the men abandoned the blue Jeep on the 800 block of Eighth Street, where they then entered a second vehicle, described as a black SUV and headed in an unknown direction.

“This is definitely a planned robbery,” Collins said. “It was not a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

Laurel police Chief David Crawford described the men as professionals who had dressed in matching all-black clothing and wore black ski masks.

He said investigators are following some leads, including the abandoned get-away vehicle, which Crawford said was stolen in Howard County earlier that morning.

Crawford added that police had not ruled out a connection to the armed robbery of the Bank of America in Clarksville on Nov. 20 that led police on a car chase through Howard, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. In that robbery, one of the three suspects was killed, a second was arrested but the third is still at-large, an FBI spokesman said today. 

Collins said police are also investigating any possible connection to a similar robbery of the Bank of America in the Laurel Shopping Center three years ago.

“We are not sure if they are related, but the similarities between the two are very close,” he said. “In both cases, it was three to four men wearing dark clothes and using two get-away vehicles.”

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user comments (1)

user beatendowntaxpayer says...

Crawford added that police had not ruled out a connection to the armed robbery of the Bank of America in Clarksville on Nov. 20 that led police on a car chase through Howard, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.-but he was willing to go out on a limb and say the guy that was killed after the Clarksville robbery most likely wasn't involved in the Laurel robbery.


Collins said police are also investigating any possible connection to a similar robbery of the Bank of America in the Laurel Shopping Center three years ago.
Yes, the same bank was robbed. There's the connection.
We are not sure if they are related, but the similarities between the two are very close,” he said. “In both cases, it was three to four men wearing dark clothes and using two get-away vehicles.”- because that never happens in bank robberies.

Ahh, journalism today is wonderful, isn't it?

Posted 11:36 PM, 12.03.08

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