Crime & Safety

FBI: Bank Robber Threatened Teller's Family

A man who robbed a North Island Credit Union in Imperial Beach Saturday was arrested at his home hours later by the San Diego Police Department.

Around 9:45 a.m. Saturday a man walked into North Island Credit Union and slipped the teller a note that said he would harm the cashier's family if he didn't get money, the FBI said Tuesday.

As Ismael Luna, 42, allegedly fled the bank in the 1100 block of Palm Avenue with an undisclosed amount of cash in a black late-model vehicle, witnesses noted the license plate number and reported it to investigators. Later in the day, officers went to Luna's home in nearby Palm City to question him about the robbery.

Though he tried to escape through the back door, the San Diego Police Department used a Taser to subdue and arrest the man.

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Luna was booked into county jail, then transferred to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego.

The incident at North Island Credit Union is the latest in a string of robberies in the 1100 block of Palm Avenue. The Chase Bank across the street was robbed twice in less than a month last fall.

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The same man authorities believe left a suspcious device initally thought to be a bomb at the Chase Bank was arrested in Imperial Beach a month later after trying to rob a Navy Federal Credit Union on Saturn Boulevard.

 

City News Service contributed to this report.


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