Scary Police Actions

September 21st, 2012
10:05 PM ET



.. CNN's Clean-Cut, Good-Looking Ted Rowlands reports.

Did police cross the line after robbery?

When an armed bank robber struck a Wells Fargo branch in Aurora, Colorado, police took extraordinary and controversial steps to find the suspect.

They pulled over 19 cars at an intersection and ordered everyone out of them at gunpoint, even children.

"I had my hands up, they had rifles and guns and everything pointed at me with shields and a canine dog," 16-year-old Michael Hance told CNN's Ted Rowlands about the June incident.

Nearly everyone was then handcuffed and treated as an armed and dangerous suspect.

They did this because the stolen money bag with $25,000 had a GPS device hidden inside and it showed the bank robbery suspect was at the intersection.

But they didn't know what he looked like because the suspect wore a beehive mask during the robbery.

Eventually they searched an SUV and found the mask, the money, two loaded guns and the suspect. Christian Paetsch, 45, a school teacher has pleaded not guilty to the crime.