Saratoga's Bank of the West Is Robbed

Update: 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1: A Caucasian man walked into Saratoga's Bank of the West at 18860 Cox Avenue early Friday afternoon and stole an undisclosed amount of money.

The call alerting Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies about the crime came in 2:32 p.m. as an alarm warning from the bank, said sheriff's spokesman Jose Cardoza.

After six sheriff's deputies responded to the scene, they set up a perimeter, however, the suspect had already left prior to them arriving at the bank, Cardoza said.

According to bank employees, who got a good description of the suspect, the robber is described as a white male adult in his 30s, wearing dark clothing, a black baseball cap with the letters C.A.L. emblazoned in yellow, between 5-foot-8 and 6-foot tall, weighing about 180 pounds, Cardoza said.

The suspect was last seen leaving the bank on foot in an unknown direction and no injuries were reported, he added. "There was no firearm and no weapons seen," Cardoza said.

It's not known if the bank has been robbed before, Cardoza added. Sheriff's investigators will continue to work the case and will inform the media and community as more info becomes available.

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A customer of Bank of the West in Saratoga, 18860 Cox Ave., emailed Saratoga Patch reporting that the bank got robbed at around 3:15 p.m. today, Friday.

Chuck Berry also emailed us a photo of a Santa Clara County Sheriff's patrol car in the parking of the bank, located in the Quito Village Shopping Center.

A Saratoga Village merchant, who declined to be identified, said she had heard that sheriff's deputies had also responded en-masse to the Village’s Bank of America parking lot in response to a report of a man who was acting strangely just after 3 p.m. Fire and paramedics personnel also responded, the merchant said.

Immediately after, she said she heard the report of the Bank of the West robbery.

—Saratoga Patch will update this story as information becomes available from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.