Bandits Grab $600,000 at Bank Center

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  Authorities are looking for three thieves in the $600,000 robbery of a North Hollywood bank processing center, described Wednesday by one police detective as the largest bank robbery in recent city history. The holdup occurred shortly before midnight Friday, when two men wearing dark ski masks and armed with handguns entered a second-floor office of the Security Pacific Bank processing center, which is used to process and verify cash deposits from outlying branches, Los Angeles police said. Five center employees were counting money, Detective Jim Grayson said, and the gunmen ordered them to get down on the floor. The robbers then put the estimated $600,000 in cash into large bags and fled, he said. No one was injured. Bank employees told investigators that one of the robbers had a walkie-talkie, which he used to converse with a third individual stationed elsewhere during the crime.