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Cash Tossed From Rental Truck After Bank Robbery

COMSTOCK PARK (AP) - An unknown amount of cash taken during a West Michigan bank robbery was tossed from a rental truck being pursued by police.

Some of the money was recovered Wednesday by officers and passers-by, but some people are believed to have kept part of the cash, a witness told The Grand Rapids Press.

"I knew that it wasn't mine and that it didn't belong to me," said Keely Kloe, who picked up a handful of $50 bills. "We just wanted to get it together and get it to the police when they came for it.

"There were a couple people who tried to evade the police. Some had to get away."

The money was believed to be from a morning bank robbery in Comstock Park, outside Grand Rapids.

A hooded man forced a customer and four bank employees into a vault at gunpoint then rode away on a bicycle, Kent County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Roger Zoppa told the newspaper.

He eventually hopped into the rental truck. Police spotted the truck and started the chase.

With officers in pursuit, the people inside the truck started tossing the money from the windows, according to the newspaper and WOOD-TV.

Most of the bills were in $20 and $50 denominations, while some $100 bills also were thrown outside the truck, said Kloe, who was with two relatives.

"Between the three of us we had thousands of dollars," she said.

Two people were arrested after police stopped the truck in Grand Rapids.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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