In connection with the typical headline --- Bank robbers toss cash during chase through L.A. --- excited print and broadcast media yesterday had it, well, half right, finds Grumpy Editor.
First, the chase started after three armed men held up a Bank of America branch in Santa Clarita, in what is called Canyon Country at the far north end of Los Angeles County.
That was 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles, a distance on par with Norwalk, Conn. to New York City.
The chase, with sheriff’s cars in pursuit, winded through Sylmar, San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena and then onward to Los Angeles city streets.
With a police helicopter (along with TV news choppers) overhead and deputy vehicles pursuing on ground, two men fled on foot from the getaway SUV in Sylmar.
One was captured, the other remained at large.
(Media neglected to ask how one suspect managed to escape from a flock of air and ground-pursuing officers.)
In central Los Angeles, perhaps inspired by an old movie, money was tossed from the getaway vehicle.
That didn’t slow pursuing sheriff’s deputies.
However, inspired by live TV coverage, people along the route in Los Angeles sprang into action to collect fluttering bills from streets.
The getaway vehicle finally came to a halt after a 90-minute chase. Police removed two suspects at gunpoint in south Los Angeles.
Police asked people to turn in the "hot" roadside money.
LAPD spokesman Sgt. Rudy Lopez, according to a Los Angeles Times report, said there was plenty of video footage of the chase that will help authorities to identify those people who grabbed the tossed money.
"If they're identified,” he warned, “they will be prosecuted for receiving stolen property," adding that conviction on such a charge, a felony, is punishable by more than a year in prison.
Now, “raining bills” and the aftereffects would be a solid basis for another movie.
