Durham Wachovia Bank branch is robbed at gunpoint

Two armed men held up a Wachovia Bank branch on West Club Boulevard on Friday morning, Durham police said.

About 20 people were inside the bank in the 900 block of West Club Boulevard, when the men, wearing stocking masks, entered the bank and demanded money from the tellers, police said.

One of the men jumped over the counter and took an undisclosed amount of money from the tellers' drawers, according to police. One of the men fired a shot inside the bank before the pair fled in a 1993 Infiniti driven by a third man.

No one inside the bank was injured, police said.

After the 10:04 a.m. robbery, a fleet of police cruisers blocked off the parking lot, as police interviewed customers and witnesses who may have caught sight of the suspects.

Three men in a white van from a nearby construction site were detained for about 45 minutes while police located a translator so they could interview them.

The swarm of flashing lights surprised Martin Chavez of Mebane, who cashes his checks at the branch when he visits his sister-in-law in Durham.

Chavez said that he arrived in town just before 10 a.m. and was on his way to the bank when he decided to visit his relatives first. Relieved that he missed the robbery, Chavez said that he would continue to use the branch but that he would be wary of possible dangers.

Police found the getaway car abandoned on Ruby Street less than two hours after the robbery. The car had been reported stolen in Butner early Friday morning, police said.

Would-be patrons of the branch near Northgate Mall expressed little more than frustration about the inconvenience when they learned about the robbery.

Some customers said robberies were becoming commonplace in Durham, while others said they would be nervous to visit that branch in the future.

Walker Stone, of Faison Street, said he wasn't surprised.

"I'm not surprised of anything that happens in Durham anymore, I'm sad to say," he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Investigator J.P. Carnevale at 560-4582, CrimeStoppers at 683-1200, the FBI at 233-7701 or (704) 377-9200 or the N.C. Bankers' Association hotline at (800) 209-2293. CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,200, and the N.C. Bankers' Association is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.