Customer feels lucky to escape bank robbery
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- A woman inside a Lakewood, Colorado, bank hit by armed robbers says she's fortunate she made it out safely.
The Lakewood resident, who asked CBS Denver not to use her name, went into the 1stBank branch on Wednesday not knowing the seemingly normal stop would change her life.
"I feel very blessed and fortunate that... uh, nothing worse happened," she said.
She was making a deposit when three men burst through the doors. They were carrying guns and wearing "Scream" type masks, similar to those used in a heist in September, at a different bank in Lakewood. The FBI believes the same perpetrators carried out both robberies, CBS Denver reported.
"One man went towards the vault he was yelling for the manager and another man went towards the other teller line and one of them came walking towards me," the woman who escaped Wednesday's stickup told the station.
That's when she says she made a split second decision to make a break for the door.
"It was gut instinct at that point. Something told me I just needed to get out of there and run... and I did."
Without looking back she made it to her van. Once inside she didn't speed away... instead she drove just far enough.
"I went and parked, I kind of was watching the whole thing, I had 911 dispatch was on the phone, I was telling them bit by bit what was happening."
From there the suspects would carry out a terrifying crime spree, stealing multiple cars, shooting two people and assaulting another. According to arrest paper work one of those injured is in critical condition the other two are at home recovering.
Police would capture one of the men outside Sheridan High School but the other two remained at large.
"What I did something could have really gone wrong and I'm still fortunate and blessed that it didn't."
The suspect taken into custody is identified as 28-year-old Miguel David Sanders Jr. He's currently being held on $1 million bond.