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May 27, 2009 9:26 am US/Central
Minn. Plates On N.D. Bank Robbery Getaway Car
GILBY, N.D. (AP) ―
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Authorities said the man with the shotgun made the teller get on the floor with her hands on her head while a second robber went to the bank vault and put cash into a garbage bag. (File)
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Duane Hunter says that when he saw the masked man pointing a sawed-off shotgun at him, he made a quick decision to get out of Gilby bank where he had come to make a deposit.
"I saw him, and I went back out the way I came," the 49-year-old Gilby-area farmer said. "I didn't walk -- I bolted."
The robber at the Bremer bank branch ordered him to get on the floor, but he was already out the door.
"You don't think, you just react," Hunter said. "My reaction was to get out from in front of that shotgun."
Hunter dashed around the corner, ducked behind some parked pickups and "scooted over to the back of the implement dealership as hard as I could go."
Authorities said the man with the shotgun made the teller get on the floor with her hands on her head while a second robber went to the bank vault and put cash into a garbage bag.
The second robber, who was armed with a handgun, emptied the teller's till into the bag before handcuffing the teller's hands behind her back and leaving her face down on the floor, the FBI said. Authorities did not say how much money was stolen.
The men drove off in a silver Jeep Liberty with Minnesota plates. They last were seen heading south on County Road 2.
Investigators from the sheriff's office and the FBI processed the bank for trace evidence and fingerprints, Chief Sheriff's Deputy Mike Fonder said. The red-brick building was cordoned off with yellow tape, and a sign on the door read, "The bank is temporarily closed."
Bremer Bank CEO Russ Erickson said the branch would remain closed Wednesday.
"Our No. 1 concern is for the people that were in the bank at the time," Erickson said. "I'm very grateful that no one was hurt."
Hunter said he lives next door to the teller in the town of about 250 people. After spending much of his life as a bachelor, he said, he was married about two years ago and now has a newborn son.
"All these years, I finally have a nice family -- I almost get shot on the main street of Gilby," he said.
Hunter recalled the bank being robbed twice before.
Richard Carlson, who owns the town's hardware store, was busy unloading a truck when the bank was robbed.
"I can't believe nobody chased them," Carlson said. "If I'd have known about it, I would have chased them."
The suspects were described as a white man, about 6 feet tall and 60 years old and weighing about 235 pounds; and a black man, about 6-foot-3, 55 years old and 250 pounds.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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