CHULA VISTA – An armed bank robber, who arrived minutes after an armored truck delivered cash, stole a substantial amount of money Tuesday afternoon after threatening employees that he would blow up the building, according to police.

The manager and an employee of the Pacific Trust Bank on Bay Boulevard, near I Street, were leaving the branch just after 4:30 p.m. when a masked man armed with a 9 mm handgun stepped out from behind some bushes and said: “Let's all go back inside,” said Chula Vista police Lt. Tom Leonard.

Once inside, he forced the pair and two other employees into an office and made them sit on the floor, Leonard said.

The robber said that he had a partner outside the bank who placed a bomb against the back wall of the building and that if they did not do what he said, it would detonate, the lieutenant said.

The man, who seemed to be familiar with the bank and its operations, took the manager and an employee into the vault and directed them to use their keys to open a smaller safe where the just-delivered money was stored, Leonard said.

He grabbed several bags of cash, took all of the employees' keys and told them that if they did not wait 10 minutes before calling police he would blow them up, the lieutenant said.

The robber drove away in one of the employee's cars, Leonard said. Police are still searching for the vehicle, described as a silver Toyota Celica with a California license plate of 4MNX084.

Plate checks at the border indicate that the vehicle did not cross into Mexico, Leonard said.

The robber was described as a white man in his 50s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing between 205 to 220 pounds. He had salt and pepper hair and bushy eyebrows, and he was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt, blue jeans, blue and white gloves and white shoes.

None of the employees were hurt, no bomb was found and no other person was seen, Leonard said.

The FBI is investigating.

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