Police seek would-be bank robber

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Grants police, along with other law enforcement agencies, responded to a call of an attempted bank robbery at Grants State Bank on Santa Fe Avenue about 3 p.m. Friday.

The suspect was not caught, did not get any money from the bank and escaped by getting into a car driven by an unidentified woman, Grants Police Lt. Corey Allen said an eyewitness told one of the bank’s tellers.

Police are asking the public’s help in finding and arresting the suspect. Anyone with information on this incident should call Crime Stoppers at (505) 287-8400 or Grants Police at (505) 287-4404, at any time.

A reward may be offered for the arrest of this suspect who is described as white or Hispanic, 5-8 or 5-9 tall, with a mustache, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with white lettering.

Witnesses to the incident were not able to tell police what the lettering was and the woman who told the bank teller about the suspect getting into a car has not been located yet, Allen said.

He said the suspect passed a teller a note stating the teller should give him all her money, no die-packs and do what she was told and no one would get hurt, Allen said.

A die-pack has a semi-permanent die of a bright color like blue or red that stains the clothing, the money and the person. Police are then able to recognize a suspect easily.

“When the teller told him she didn’t have any money, he ran out of the bank,” Allen said.

Because of the lateness of the attempted robbery and the beginning of a holiday weekend, police are not able to provide the Independent with a video image of the alleged robber until Wednesday. If the suspect has not been arrested by then, the Independent will publish a still photo from the video with updated information on Thursday.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.