PACIFIC GROVE, Calif- A bank robbery on the Central Coast like a scene from a famous Hollywood movie.
Pacific Grove Police say three men wearing masks of US Presidents robbed a Chase Bank, Wednesday morning. It happened around 9:15 a.m. at the County Club Gate Center, off of Forest Avenue.
"It was reported that three subjects armed with handguns and potentially a sub-machine gun had robbed the bank and had placed the employees of the bank into the vault," said Commander John Nyunt, Pacific Grove Police Department.
They even ordered the customers to lay on the ground. It sounds like a movie plot, not a crime in the quiet town of Pacific Grove. The robbers even dressed up the way they do in movies.
"We have preliminary information that they were wearing presidential type masks," said Commander Nyunt.
Masks of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. But unlike the movies, these criminals got away.
Police say the suspects left through the back door of the bank, ran down the stairs and drove off in a silver Volkswagon Bug reported stolen from Salinas. That car was found a short time later, with no one in it.
Central Coast News talked with people who were trying to go into the bank, Wednesday morning, and they said they're shocked by what happened.
"If I'm going to live here, my God! I see it on TV but it didn't personally affect me," said Wendy Henderson, Pacific Grove resident.
Henderson lives in Pacific Grove for the past year and said her quiet town is no longer safe from crimes like these. "I can't believe, anywhere is not safe. I park my car somewhere and I forget to lock it but I have to lock it now, you know? Be safe, you know?"
The Pacific Grove Police Department was assisted by the FBI, the California Department of Justice, California Highway Patrol and the Monterey County Sheriff's Department.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Pacific Grove Police Department at 831-648-3143.
Mask Similar To Ones Described in Robbery. Picture from Halloween-Mask.com
