2 Youths Are Released After Being Cleared of Wrongdoing in Robbery

RIVERSIDE —  Two teen-agers arrested in the investigation of a bank robbery as they rode a bus that drove past the scene of the crime were cleared of wrongdoing and released, authorities said Saturday.

The youths, ages 16 and 17, were interviewed by detectives and released to their parents Thursday evening, Riverside County Sheriff’s spokesman Mark Lohman said.

The youths were arrested Thursday after three men wearing pantyhose over their heads robbed a Union Bank branch in Glen Avon, then fled in a waiting car. Witnesses told police the men may have driven to the Riverside bus station, where other witnesses said they saw two men matching the descriptions of two robbers get on a bus bound for Ontario, Lohman said.

Deputies stopped that bus about a quarter-mile from the bank and arrested the youths, who had been talking and joking in the back of the bus, passengers said.