News - Man is held after shooting

Thursday, March 9, 2006

Minus car key, robbers elude police
A seven-hour search proves fruitless.

By JENNIFER MUIR
The Orange County Register

MISSION VIEJO — Authorities are searching for two armed robbers who dropped the key to their getaway car while holding up a credit union Thursday afternoon, forcing them to run away with a bag of cash.

The search shut down part of the northbound San Diego (I-5) Freeway just before rush hour and included a helicopter, a bloodhound and armed investigators who scoured shrubbery, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The men walked into Orange County Federal Credit Union, 28211 Marguerite Parkway, about 1 p.m. One pointed a gun at a teller, jumped over the counter and stuffed an undisclosed amount of cash into a bag, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

“He jumped back over, and that’s when he dropped the key, but he didn’t realize it,” Amormino said.

The pair ran down an embankment to a parking lot where their getaway car, a silver Jeep Cherokee rented in Northern California, sat and then realized they didn’t have the key, Amormino said.

They were last seen running toward the freeway.

Four northbound lanes were closed at Avery Parkway for about an hour beginning at 2:15 p.m., backing up traffic past Ortega (74) Highway, California Highway Patrol officer Katrina Lundgren said.

The search was called off about 8:30 p.m.

The first man was described as black, 16 to 20 years old, about 6 feet tall and with a slender build. He was wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt with a tie, dark pants, white shoes and a Chicago White Sox baseball hat. He carried a chrome-plated revolver.

The second was described as black, in his early 20s, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and with a slender build and shoulder-length braided hair that might have been a wig. He was wearing a blue dress shirt and dark pants and shoes. He was armed with a blue semi-automatic weapon.

Anyone who might have seen the men is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at (714) 628-7170.