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A Colorado woman was arrested and charged with child abuse for allegedly using two children she was babysitting in a plot to rob a bank, police said Monday.

Rachel Einspahr, 28, allegedly drove up to a service window at Colorado East Bank & Trust in Severance on Friday and passed a note to the teller that said a man in her car was threatening to harm her children if she didn't give him money, according to the Weld County Sheriff's Office in northern Colorado.

Rachel Einspahr Weld County Sheriff's Office

"The Bank Teller, under the assumption that lives were in danger, gave her $500," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

After receiving a report of the theft, sheriff’s officers immediately searched the area and found an SUV that matched the description of the suspects’ vehicle a short distance away from the bank, the sheriff’s office said. The children were not harmed, according to the sheriff's office.

Einspahr and another suspect were detained and questioned, and officers discovered that Einspahr wasn't the kids' mom.

She is being held at the Weld County Jail on a robbery charge and two counts of child abuse.

The other person who was detained has not been charged or identified.