The sun., 1919-09-16
BANDITS STRIP
BANK OF $500
Six Rob Institution in East
218th Street; Escape in
Motor Car.
THEY LEAVE NO CLUES
Job Perpetrated at Noon;
Money Laden Customers
Overlooked.

The Williamsbridge branch of the
Bronx Borough Bank, at East 21sth
street and White Plains road, in a
neighborhood where finance has estab-
lished few outposts, was robbed at
noon yesterday by six men, who came
and went by automobile. spoke softly,
hurt nobody and acquired $500.
The only clue 80 far pointing to the
identity Of the men is a seven passen-
ger touring car standing by a curb
stone in Harlem. It was left there by
two men last night, who seemed in a
great hurry to put distance between
it and them, and the license number
IL bears was issued last winter to a
man who gave a public park as his ad-
have to go by is the rather fragmen-
tary descriptions of the robbers given
after the robbery by the few persons
who were in the little bank when the
bandits came in.
Never. not even in the woolly West
where the robbery of banks has been
practised as an art. was a robbery car
ried Off with SO high a hand, with 30
little of gruff speech and with such
complete success and expedition. The
whole robbery did not occupy six min
utes of the time Of the bankers and
business men concerned; the only voices
speaking were those in respective COM
mand of the robbing band and the bank.
and two minutes after the robbers and
the cash they stole had vanished out
OF the doors together no trace of them
remained.
The men did not even take the trouble
to hang handkerchiefs before their faces
when they came In to get their loot,
The bank Is under the shadow Of an
elevated structure which is part of the
subway system and this, with the occa-
sional noise 1t affords, was all the screen
the men seemed to think necessary for
their purpose.
Six Men Reach Bank.
A train was laundering by overhead
at the moment that an automobile
stopped before the bank door and six
not i'll looking men stepped from it They
ton of the city nearly every man wears
a cap. They had on long coats, but
they had been riding In an automobile
and the season was no longer summer
But. no doubt they had measured their
ground carefully before coming to plum
der the place and had noted that the
manager and two of the clerks had gone
to lunch, and that only five persons re-
/ mained in the bank-two other clerks, a
! messenger from another bank ana TWO
| customers.
| So that upon their entrance each OF
them was able to cover man with Q
| gun point, while the extra one OF them
| who seemed to be their leader, went rap
| tdly about the work of collecting the
money they had come for. First he
| locked the front door behind himself
| second, he made very brief speech
SAYING that no one would be harmed whc
behaved. Then he ordered whoever was
, in charge of the bank at that moment
to precede him 10 the bank vault and
keep his hands well elevated.
/ There are men in this world who are
named Ideally. One William Cash II
paying teller of the Wllliamsoridg'
bank, and 1t was he who, with the man
ager at luncheon, conceded that he wal
in charge and authority and led the way
/ 10 the vault, Upon the point of keeping
his hands we'll above his head he wal
punctillous, but as he walked towart
the vault he explained, as well as HI
could In that awkward posture, that HI
was powerless to open the vault com
pletely since an inner chamber OF II wal
locked with time lock. No answer
was made him until all the cash upor
his desk and in his teller's cage had beer
swept into a bag by one OF the ropper'
and the bag passed TO another robbel
, who stood near the door. Then he wal
ordered to open the main vault door
which he did, and tho robbers helpet
themselves TO what was there. VIII
what had lain on the teller's desk
amounted to about $1,000.