El Cajon Bank Robber With 'Bite Me' T-shirt Escapes on Bicycle

A gun-toting man wearing a shirt with a "Bite Me" logo on it robbed an East County bank Tuesday and made his getaway on a bicycle, authorities reported.

The thief, who appeared to be 30 to 40 years old, approached a teller at the Pacific Western branch office in the 300 block of Broadway in El Cajon about 12:45 p.m. and told her, "This is a robbery," according to police.

The bandit then lifted his shirt -- which had the two-word phrase printed on the front -- to reveal a pistol tucked in his waistband, Lt. Tim Henton said.

The clerk put an undisclosed amount of cash in a plastic grocery bag that the robber handed her. He took it, walked out of the bank and fled the area on a red mountain bike, riding to the north on Ballantyne Street, according to Henton.

Officers and deputies searched for the thief with help from a sheriff's helicopter crew but were unable to find him.

Witnesses described him as a roughly 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pound man with a stocky build, dressed in faded blue jeans, a long-sleeve white T-shirt and a black baseball cap.

-City News Service