Clowning around doesn't work for would-be Calif. bank robber

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A would-be robber -- wearing clown makeup and carrying a purse -- tried to hold up a Riverside credit union this week but left empty handed.

"I guess they didn't take the clown seriously," said police Sgt. Skip Showalter.

The brief one-man circus performed at 5:11 p.m. Wednesday at Altura Credit Union along the 3400 block of Fourteenth Street.

There apparently wasn't anything remarkable about the clown's clothes, Showalter said.

But the man, believed to be in his 50s, was wearing heavy pancake makeup, bright red lipstick, pink rouge on his cheeks, and a wig. And, oh yes, he was carrying a black purse.

There's no word on whether he escaped in a tiny little car with lots of other clowns inside.

E-mail reporter Richard Brooks at rbrooks(at)PE.com.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.