Bank Robber Leaves Behind Bogus Bomb

An unshaven, longhaired man left behind an intricately wired package that looked like a bomb Thursday morning after robbing a Ventura bank--the year’s first bank robbery in the county, authorities said.

The bomb proved to be a hoax, but it took the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad more than two hours to remove the device using a remote-controlled robot.

The robber entered the Wells Fargo at 101 S. Chestnut St. about 9 a.m. just after the bank opened and slipped a note to the teller behind a bulletproof window that separates the customers from most of the employees, said Special Agent Gary Auer, who supervises the Ventura office of the FBI.

The teller handed over the cash and the robber left behind the small device that had lights and some circuitry on it, Auer said.

Fearing that the man had left behind a bomb, the employees evacuated the bank and called police.

The robber was described by witnesses as a white man between 35 and 40 years old, 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds with brown, shoulder-length hair, Auer said.

A man fitting that description was stopped by Ventura police on Figueroa Street at gunpoint four blocks from the bank, but was released after it was determined he was not a suspect.

Although the robbery was similar to one last month at a Bank of America nearby, authorities do not consider the two bank robberies to be related at this time, Auer said.