Issue date: August 26, 1998

Armed bank robbery causes a stir in Sharon Heights Armed bank robbery causes a stir in Sharon Heights (August 26, 1998)

**Robber flees with cash; witnesses make a run for it.
By DINA LEYTES

"Get back in the store, you're in the line of fire," a police officer barked last week at Erin MacGeraghty, owner of a jewelry store at Sharon Heights shopping center.
Mrs. MacGeraghty, who was trying to exit the shop after she heard a bank robbery was in progress next door, promptly re-entered the store and locked the door.
The bank, a Wells Fargo branch in the shopping center on Sharon Park Drive in Menlo Park, was robbed by a man armed with a handgun at approximately 10:50 a.m. Thursday, August 20, police said.
He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. Witnesses described him as a slender white male, wearing a blonde wig with black streaks, a white hard hat, dark pants, black and white fleece jacket and boots.
This was the second bank robbery at the shopping center in the last month. A man claiming to have a gun robbed the Washington Mutual Bank branch on July 28.
Eye witness

Joyce Jelich of Portola Valley was in the bank filling out a deposit slip when the robbery occurred.

"A man suddenly pointed a gun at my teller's head and insisted that everyone stay calm," she said.

There was one other customer in the bank and four tellers. Mrs. Jelich said the man told her and the other customer, Paul Abrahamzon, to line up facing the wall, while he went to the back of the bank with the tellers and directed them to open the vault.

"He was pretty much focused on what he wanted," said Mrs. Jelich. "He didn't seem very violent."

Mrs. Jelich said she was worried that her husband, who was outside at an ATM machine, would come in.

When Mr. Abrahamzon, a Safeway employee, suggested they make a run for it, she said she was frightened at first, but they fled while the robber was in the back of the bank.

"We ran to nearby businesses and had them call the police," said Mrs. Jelich, who went to Surrey's Shop, a women's clothing store two doors down from the bank, until police arrived.

She praised Mr. Abrahamzon: "I don't know what I would have done without him," she said.

The tellers, who remained in the bank until police arrived, said they did not see the robber leave.

Since the armed man might have still been in the bank, police called in the San Mateo County SWAT team to search the building. Police closed off a portion of the shopping center and surrounded the bank building, but were unable to find the man, said Menlo Park Police Commander Dominick Peloso.

"The police had machine guns and told us to evacuate," said Neil Siciliano, owner of Neil's Store for Men, located across from the bank. The stores that were closed off did not reopen until approximately 3 p.m., Mr. Siciliano said.

"The police were very efficient," said Gayle Stauffer, an employee at the Surrey Shop. "I think they handled things well."