<sh>Armed Bank Robbery in Springfield
<bt>Two armed men conducted a daylight robbery on a Springfield bank last week. On Thursday, Aug. 19, around 9:15 a.m., two men entered the Bank of America, located in the 6400 block of Loisdale Road. According to a Fairfax County Police release, the armed men ordered employees and customers to lie on the floor. The pair then took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the bank on foot. Both men were described as black, wearing ski masks and dressed in black clothing. One suspect was 6 feet tall, displaying a handgun, and the other was 5 feet 10 inches tall. No injuries were reported.
Later that same morning, two similarly dressed men robbed the Access National Bank in the 8200 block of Old Courthouse Road in Tysons Corner.
“We’re not saying the two are related," said Officer Jeff Hairston of the Fairfax County Police. "We have to look into it. With them happening within an hour and a half of each other, we are looking into it."
Anyone with information regarding either robbery is asked to call the Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131 or call Fairfax County Crime Solvers at 800-691-8888.
<sh>Neighborhood College Opens
<bt>West Springfield Neighborhood College offers free classes to teach residents about their local government and offers opportunities to develop individual leadership skills that can strengthen their neighborhood. Topics include the following:
* Understanding local government and how to get involved,
* Living and working in Fairfax County 2004,
* Communicating in a multicultural environment,
* How to build community partnerships.
All sessions meet on Thursday evenings at 6:30 p.m., at the West Springfield Governmental Center Community Room, 6140 Rolling Road, Springfield. For more information about the West Springfield Neighborhood College, call 703-324-5285.
<sh>Summer Vacation: What Did You Do?
<bt>Connection readers are invited to send in photos of their summer vacation. As we do on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we will print as many of these photos as we can in the weeks before and after Labor Day.
Please include a sentence or two about what is happening in the photo, including where the photo was taken and identifying all the people pictured. Include your name and address. We will print the names of the people in the photo and their towns of residence.
We will accept prints or digital photos. If you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, we will do our best to return hard-copy photographs, but please do not send us anything irreplaceable.
Photos may be mailed to The Connection Newspapers Summer Vacation Photos, 9713 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102. Digital photos can be sent on CD or e-mailed to photob@connectionnewspapers.com.