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Robbers Hit Bank Day Before Christmas

By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: December 24, 2008

SPRING HILL - David Housel showed up at his credit union Wednesday morning with some Christmas gifts for the tellers.
He was greeted by crime scene tape.
Around 9:45 a.m., three men wearing black ski masks and toting guns robbed the Tampa Postal District Federal Credit Union at 4094 Deltona Blvd. Deputies in the area were keeping a lookout for the suspects' white four-door Dodge Stratus. It has dark tinted windows and a temporary tag.
When Housel arrived 15 minutes later, two tellers in matching blue polo shirts were leaning against a cruiser, writing statements and pantomiming the robbery for a deputy.
Detectives parked their unmarked Fords on the strip mall's grassy median and ducked under the yellow tape. A forensics crew turned up next.
The little bank shares the shopping plaza near Forest Oaks Boulevard with a dance studio, a music shop and a beauty supply store painted hot pink. Housel said he's been coming there since it opened three or four years ago.
He's come to count the tellers among his friends — hence the Christmas presents. Authorities say no one was hurt in the robbery.
"People are just desperate I guess," Housel said about the robbery.
The suspects, described only as three black men, made away with an undisclosed amount of cash. No one had been captured by press deadline Wednesday. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office at 352-754-6830, or for anonymous tips worth up to $1,000, call 1-866-990-TIPS (8477).