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Everett bank robber gets cash, leaves fake pipe bomb

Print | Comments () Posted by John Ellement March 3, 2011 03:38 PM

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Wendy Maeda / Globe Staff

A State Police bomb technician emerges from an Everett bank where police were investigating a suspicious device.

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

EVERETT – The man who robbed a bank here this morning left behind what appeared to be a pipe bomb equipped with a timer, forcing authorities to spend nearly three hours investigating before they learned the bomb was a fake.

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“It was an inert device made to look like a bomb,’’ Everett Police Chief Steven Mazzie told reporters just before noon today.

Mazzie said the man walked into the branch of the East Boston Savings Bank on Revere Beach Parkway shortly after 9 a.m. today. He walked up to a teller, demanded cash, and then pulled out what looked like a pipe bomb, the chief said.

After the teller handed over some cash, the thief ran out of the bank – but left the realistic-looking device on the bank counter, the chief said. Bank employees and customers were evacuated and the State Police bomb squad was summoned, officials said.

At noon today, Route 16, which had been closed in both directions while the suspicious package was examined, was in the process of being fully reopened. Real-time traffic updates can be found here.

At its height, Revere Beach Parkway was choked with emergency vehicles, including a dark pickup truck being used by the bomb squad technicians for their specialized equipment.

During the investigation, State Police bomb squad technicians dispatched multiple robots into the bank, and appeared to monitor what the robots were observing on a laptop computer.

The robbery and the fake bomb have drawn the attention of Everett and State Police and of the FBI and special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal government’s top bomb disposal experts.

Mazzie said the suspect jammed open the door to the bank to ensure his escape. He said the suspect fled the bank on foot. Police have called in K-9 dogs to assist in the search for the man.

No one was injured, and no arrests have been made, police said.