FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Fernandina Beach police are asking the public for help identifying and tracking down a pair of men who wore smiling president masks as they robbed a bank Tuesday afternoon.
Two armed men wearing Halloween-style masks and wearing gloves entered the First Federal Savings Bank on Sadler Road at 1:48 p.m. They jumped over the counter, grabbed cash and ran out in less than a minute, police said.
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Investigators said the men brandished handguns and carried a black bag. The men removed cash from two teller stations and fled the bank in a white Dodge Stratus.
"Anything could happen in this incident. They brandished a gun. If they're really or not, we don?t know. They very well could hurt somebody," said Fernandina Beach Police Department Capt. David Bishop.
According to witnesses and bank surveillance video, it took about 48 seconds from the time the robbers entered the business until they fled.
Nobody was injured during the robbery.
Officers responding to the call found the Stratus less than two minutes after the original call. The getaway car was abandoned on Oak Street, a short distance from the bank, and the robbers apparently fled from that location in a staged vehicle, police said.
The Stratus had been reported stolen from a movie theater parking lot in Ormond Beach early Monday, according to investigators.
The bank robbery was similar to an incident Nassau County Sheriff Tommy Seagraves said happened in Yulee in July.
In response, Nassau County agencies are sharing information with each other and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and hoping someone will view the surveillance images and be able to help.
"One of them was a larger guy, and one of them was kind of a slender guy. Hopefully somebody knows these people, and maybe they've bragged to somebody or told somebody," Bishop said.
Anyone with information that could help investigators is asked to call police or Crimestoppers at 866-845-TIPS.