By Brian Zanzonico
The tellers, at the Citibank branch at 1060 Hempstead Turnpike, weren't injured in the attack, but the thief made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, Detective Kevin Smith of the Nassau County Police Department said.
According to an eyewitness, a white man wearing sunglasses, a bandanna over his face and a gray hooded sweatshirt came in through the front entrance on Hempstead Turnpike carrying what looked like a water bottle wrapped in black electrical tape with a red-light-topped antenna sticking out of the top.
"He sprayed a few tellers with a smelly green liquid, and said he would light it to scare everybody," said Joann Chiuazzi, who was on line with her husband at the time. "When [the tellers] backed away, he got on a chair and jumped over the counter and took money from three tellers [stations]."
After taking the money, Chiuazzi said, the thief ran out the back door into the parking lot. Chiuazzi said she and her husband followed the man outside, where he tripped and fell before getting into a silver car and driving down Lexington Avenue.
He left the spray device in the parking lot before fleeing, prompting police to call in the bomb squad, Smith said. Police closed Hempstead Turnpike from Scherer Boulevard to New Hyde Park Road, snarling traffic for hours deep into Elmont to the west and West Hempstead to the east.
At just after 4 p.m., police ordered bank employees who were standing outside the tire center next door to move down the street toward Herman Boulevard. The bomb squad detonated the device.
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