Have You Seen This Man?

If you see an elderly white man, 65-70, balding, bandaged and in a leg cast, riding a wheelchair in Palo Alto, Calif., call the cops.

Palo Alto police say a man resembling this artist's sketch robbed the Wachovia bank in the Stanford...

Palo Alto police say a man resembling this artist's sketch robbed the Wachovia bank in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto last week, and escaped with an undetermined amount of cash. According to police, the man is an elderly Caucausian, 65 to 70 years old, wearing a cast on one leg, with a beard, and riding in a large, electric powered-wheelchair. According to a press release, "he was described as balding by some, but wore a dark, hooded sweatshirt."

(Courtesy of Palo Alto Police Department)
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Yes, you read that right. They say the man robbed a bank at gunpoint last week.

A man fitting the above description robbed a bank in a shopping mall last Thursday and managed foil cops with a brazen, midday, slow-speed getaway.

Witnesses say the man motored away in the chair — his right leg wrapped in a cast and sticking straight out — and may have gotten into a getaway car, an apparently-handicapped equipped white van. Or he may have been hoisted into the van by accomplices.

Initial reports had the man motoring down a nearby street towards the busy El Camino Real, and police said in a press release that the suspect was "gone from the area upon officers' arrival."

But in an interview with ABC News today, a department spokeswoman said a witness may have seen the man enter a van that was "parked very close" to the bank.

Adding to the Palo Alto police department's Keystone Cops-like luck, authorities said they were unable to get a clear image of the bandit from surveillance footage.

Over the weekend Palo Alto police issued a sketch of the suspect and are seeking the public's assistance in tracking the man down.

"We're hoping someone might recognize him," Palo Alto Police Department Agent Dan Ryan, who is overseeing the investigation, told the San Jose Mercury-News newspapers.

Palo Alto Police Department Officer Marianna Villaescusa could not immediate provide an estimate of the amount of time it took her department to respond to the robbery.

"Whenever there is a bank robbery, the people inside the bank are the priority,'' she told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit. No one was hurt during the robbery.