Staff and customers at Oxford Bank in downtown Clarkston were shaken up but unhurt after two men pulled an armed robbery, 10:55 a.m., Monday.
One witness was there that morning, cashing a check.
“He opened up the door and I thought, ‘I don’t like the looks of that guy’ ? he had his hoodie pulled way up,'” she said. “I never thought I’d be in a bank when it got robbed.”
The first man, about 6-feet-tall, wearing a mask, grey hoodie, and gloves, immediately pulled a pistol, she said.
“He brought the gun up and ran to the window where I was at,” she said. “He kept yelling, ‘give me the money.'”
At one point, the robber demanded the teller open a locked drawer, and told her to “get someone or someone’s going to get hurt,” the witness remembered.
“All the time, he kept the gun pointed at me,” she said. “It was pointed at me and it was cocked. I was scared.”
“It’s a frightful thing to go through,” said Lt. Dirk Feneley, Independence Township sheriff’s substation commander. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
No one in the bank offered any resistance, which was sensible, Feneley said.
“Give them what they want and get them out of there,” he said.
A second suspect, about 5-foot-10-inches tall, was wearing a mask and a black hoodie.
The two men fled on foot from the bank in the 7100 block of Ortonville Road near Northview, and are believed to have left the area in a vehicle. They took an undetermined amount of cash, deputies said.
Deputies stopped an SUV on Holcomb Road at Dark Lake Drive at about 11 a.m., but the driver was cleared and released.
Clarkston Community Schools conducted a ‘shelter in place? due to the robbery, locking all buildings against entry but continuing normal class schedule. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Department gave the district the ‘all clear? at 11:40 a.m.
Investigation continues by Independence substation detectives, sheriff’s Forensic Lab, and FBI agents.
Call Crime Stoppers of Southeast Michigan at 1-800-SPEAK UP, or Oakland County Sheriff’s Office CRIME TIPLINE, 888-TURN-1-IN OR 1-888-887-6146.