West Seattle Crime Watch: Bank robbery at Westwood Village

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(cameraphone photo added 5:11 pm)
Southwest Precinct police are responding to a robbery call at Westwood Village – believed to be the Alaska USA Credit Union branch in QFC. We’re on our way to check it out. 4:55 PM UPDATE: We’re on the scene. That is indeed the bank that was hit. No injuries that we know of. A K-9 officer is at the scene and while the bank branch is closed now, the store’s still open, for now. 5:27 PM UPDATE: Just talked to a manager at the bank. It will stay closed till about 7, then the manager says it will reopen for a little while in case people need to handle transactions as the week comes to a close – it’ll be open regular hours tomorrow.

Eddy July 10, 2009 (6:22 pm)

I just stopped by to deposit my check and they were closed, police were dusting the counter for prints. I asked if everybody was ok, and they said yes.

This is the best bank branch ever! Big ups to my people behind the counter! Jen, Kelsey, Alicia, Lynyrd, and all the rest! A neighborhood treasure! open on Sundays and they’re all way cool – they don’t deserve to have guns pointed at them.

bridge to somewhere July 10, 2009 (6:57 pm)

it is a seriously scary (and probably pretty dumb) person who robs a bank that’s INSIDE A FREAKIN’ BUSY GROCERY STORE! yikes.

seattlegal July 11, 2009 (10:58 pm)

I apparently witnessed the crime, but was completely unaware. I was self-checking my groceries at the station closest to the bank, but only knew something was amiss when they started closing down suddenly. As I grabbed my bag and walked passed I overheard the teller saying they’d just been robbed. I thought momentarily I should stay and talk to the police, but as I had nothing useful to contribute, my instinct to get the heck out of there won over. The police started zipping down Delridge to the scene as I drove home. Apparently the robber was fast and subtle. Unsettling, to be sure.

KateMcAdon't geven July 12, 2009 (2:07 pm)

Most of the time the robber just passes a note, and bank employees are trained to just comply with the demands (plus add stuff like dye-packs to the money they hand over if it’s safe to do so), so most of the time other people will have no idea that the branch has been robbed. It certainly doesn’t make it any less frightening to the teller. Plus, robbers don’t make off with much money anyway because there are standard practices for keeping drawer counts low and the like– so it’s a trip to federal prison and they don’t even get any money! Morons. I’m so glad the employees are ok- they are always a pleasure to interact with.

Ms Gail July 13, 2009 (8:14 pm)

This really was a shock when I found out about this and im very happy that all the employees are all ok, thier safety is the most important thing here. As for the person that did this im sure he will get caught, and i hope sooner then soon.

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