A woman reportedly kidnapped from an ATM early Wednesday has been found safe, Forest Park police said.
She was located unharmed just before 1:30 p.m., according to police.
Another woman called 911 shortly after 1 a.m. saying that she and two friends had just been robbed at gunpoint while using the ATM at the Wells Fargo bank in the 1100 block of Main Street, Forest Park police spokeswoman Amy Hiers said.
Hiers said the woman told police that as she was making a deposit at the ATM, “she caught somebody moving out of the corner of her eye, and she tried to hide her money, but they approached her at gunpoint.”
After robbing the woman, the gunmen pulled the driver of the white Toyota Camry that the women were in into the back seat and forced the third woman out of the car, then drove away, holding the vehicle’s driver at gunpoint in the back seat.
The robbery victim told police there were at least three, and possibly as many as five robbers.
One of the robbers had hair that was dyed red and in “short twists,” and had a red T-shirt covering part of his face, while a second robber had a white T-shirt covering the bottom part of his face, according to Hiers.
The kidnap victim is being questioned by detectives.
Ernest Stephens, who catches the bus every morning just a few feet from the ATM, bemoaned what he called a lack of security in the area during the overnight hours.
“There’s no protection here,” said Stephens, who said he learned of the earlier robbery and kidnapping on the news. “It could happen to me or anyone else.”
— Staff writer Daniel Funke contributed to this report.
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