Robbers Hold Up Two Credit Unions : Crime: Men who took over Garden Grove facility are still at large; Seal Beach holdup turns into freeway chase.

Two credit unions in Orange County were hit by robbers Thursday, with suspects in one of the incidents leading police on a freeway chase that ended near Los Angeles International Airport and forced the evacuation of a nearby hotel.

Police said the two robberies, in Seal Beach and Garden Grove, apparently were not related, no shots were fired, and no one was injured.

The first incident was just after 11 a.m. at the Postal Employees Credit Union on Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove. Two men entered the building, announced that they were armed and ordered employees and customers to lie on the floor, Garden Grove Police Capt. David Abrecht said.

One of the men then jumped over the counter and took money, probably more than $1,000, Abrecht said. The two then fled in a white, late-1980s Toyota minivan driven by a third person, he said.

The holdup was unusual, he said, because of the robbers’ style. “Most are rather quiet, where a robber comes in and displays a weapon or implies he has a weapon,� he said.

Police were still searching for the suspects late Thursday.

The second incident began at 12:33 p.m. in Seal Beach, where police said three men entered the Rockwell Federal Credit Union on Seal Beach Boulevard and took an undisclosed amount of money. A fourth man waited for them in a getaway car, a four-door sedan that investigators later discovered had been reported stolen, said Sgt. Tim Olson of the Seal Beach Police Department.

The four suspects switched the car for a blue van, which they drove north on the San Diego Freeway with police in pursuit. As they approached Los Angeles International Airport, they were caught in traffic, Olson said. Officers arrested two of the men as they tried to exit the van, but the other two escaped on foot.

Late Thursday, police arrested a third suspect in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel, from which guests and staff had been evacuated. The fourth suspect was still being sought in the vicinity of the hotel, Olson said.