Monroe bank robber ties up tellers, flees in stolen car

Published 4:31 pm Tuesday, February 3, 2009

MONROE – No one was injured this morning when a man tied up four women who work at a Monroe bank before he fled the robbery in one of the women’s vehicles.

As employees were opening the Key Bank in the 200 block of Main Street around 8 a.m., a man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt forced his way inside, Monroe police spokeswoman Debbie Willis said.

The man threatened the women with a silver handgun, Willis said. He tied the women up and put them in a back room.

Police aren’t sure if the man took anything from the bank other than one of the employee’s vehicles, Willis said.

That vehicle was found about an hour later abandoned on Tualco Loop Road, about a mile south of the city.

The employees managed to free themselves and call 911.

Local police are working the FBI to investigate the robbery.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Monroe Police Department at 360-794-6300 or leave an anonymous tip at 360-863-4600.