Local News in Brief : Similarities Seen in Bank Robberies

Two men who held a teller and her family hostage in the robbery of a Buena Park bank earlier this week may have been responsible for a similar holdup of a Torrance bank in April, law enforcement officials said.

“We’re examining similarities between the two incidents,” said Lt. Frank Woodall of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department robbery detail.

In the Torrance holdup, three men held a Wells Fargo Bank manager and her son hostage at their home for 12 hours and then drove the woman to the bank, where she was forced to open the vault before the bank opened, officials said.

On Sunday night, two men held a Security Pacific Bank teller, Norma Sanchez, 47, and her family hostage overnight, strapped what they claimed was a bomb to the woman’s body and then drove her and her son to the Buena Park bank Monday. It was later learned that the “bomb” was a fake.

One of the robbers accompanied Sanchez into the bank, where he told employees that he would detonate the bomb unless they opened the vault.