News Updates:

Teenage Bank Bandits Busted

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Fund for Local Reporting! Two boys, ages 13 and 14, and their 18-year-old companion were arrested by Berkeley Police on Friday after their were caught staking out a Shattuck Avenue bank.

According to a campus police department crime alert, Berkeley police officers were summoned to the Mechanics Bank branch at 2301 Shattuck Ave. after a caller reported suspicious persons lurking in the area.

Police arrived to find two people hiding in the bushes and a third “casing the bank.”

City and campus police gave chase where the trio bolted, nabbing two of them close to the bank and the last moments later hiding in a Durant Avenue garage,

Officers recovered a 12-inch knife, a fake firearm, a ski mask and a duffel bag, and the university police report that the trio admitted they had been planning a bank heist.

All three were taken into custody.