CORAL GABLES, Fla. — A bank teller was kidnapped early Friday from his home by robbers who strapped a suspected bomb to his chest and used him to steal money from a Bank of America branch while his father was being held hostage, the FBI said.
It began when the three masked, gun-toting thieves burst into the teller’s apartment shortly after midnight.
The men held the teller, Diego Uscamayta, and his father hostage in the suburban Kendall, Fla., apartment for seven hours, waiting for morning when the younger Uscamayta usually helped open his Bank of America branch near the University of Miami campus, according to the FBI, local police and friends. One suspect stayed with Uscamayta’s father, while the other two and Uscamayta left for the bank in the teller’s red 1998 Ford Mustang.
Strapped to Uscamayta’s body was a device the robbers said was a bomb.
Once at the bank about 8 a.m., the thieves sent Uscamayta inside.
“They said, ‘We have a triggering device. Get as much money as you can and bring it out to us,’” Coral Gables Police Chief Richard Naue said.
Also inside the bank was the female branch manager, the FBI said. After Uscamayta took an undisclosed amount of cash, the robbers took off in his car and the manager called police.
That triggered a responseof heavily armed police and shut down traffic on a segment of U.S. 1, a major Miami thoroughfare, leading as well to lockdowns at several nearby schools. Authorities initially feared there may have been hostages inside the bank.
Shortly before noon, after police bomb robots had been sent inside, the possible bomb was removed and the shirtless teller was led out of the bank. Neither Uscamayta nor his father was injured.
The robbers never entered the bank, apparently relying on Uscamayta’s fear of a possible explosion and the potential danger to his father to ensure he would do their bidding inside.
“It is an unusual event to have explosives strapped to a victim and sent in,” said Dena Choucair, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.
She said there were bombmaking materials in the device.
The FBI and Miami-Dade Police Department’s bomb squad were examining the device to determine whether it was a working bomb or a fake.
They were also questioning Uscamayta, 25. Although Naue and other officials described Uscamayta publicly as a “victim,” authorities wanted to make sure he had no involvement in the plot.
There was no immediate sign of the suspects. Police were still searching late Friday afternoon for Uscamayta’s Mustang, which had the Florida license tag R958DY.
Information for this article was contributed by Tony Winton, Christine Armario, Curt Anderson and Travis Reed of The Associated Press and by Jennifer Lebovich, David Smiley and Andrea Torres of McClatchy Newspapers.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/25/2010