NIZHNY NOVGOROD, December 17 (RIA Novosti) - A man and a woman were arrested by police in the southwest Urals Republic of Bashkiria on Wednesday on suspicion of robbing a bank with a gun-shaped cigarette lighter, a police spokesman said.
The two masked suspects, who were also armed with a hammer, stole 33,000 rubles ($1,200) from a branch of state savings bank Sberbank in the village of Tirlyan of Bashkiria's Beloryetsk district on Wednesday.
"The robbers took the cash and fled," a bank employee told police.
Later the 23-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman stopped a car and asked the driver to give them a lift.
The car was stopped by the traffic police, who discovered a bag with the money, the fake gun and the masks.
An investigation is underway. The suspects face up to 10 years in jail.
