We've got our own serial bank robber out here, and he has plagued area banks for the last several months. The folks in Roanoke, Virginia, had one too. And, here's how that problem got solved.
Some men working in the neighborhood of a Wachovia bank, which had been robbed two weeks before, saw a guy loitering outside the bank. He matched the image of the robber which had been caught on surveillance tape and shown on television and in print. So, the guy robbed the bank again, and the men took off after him. Here's how Roanoke.com tells it:
When Landsdown and McGlennon saw the man go inside the bank and come out, crossing the street with a bag in his hand, they began to follow him."I was acting like I was just walking. I think the plan at first was to keep a safe distance," Landsdown said. "I didn't know if he had a gun or not. I was kind of checking him out from a distance."
Landsdown said his plan was to see if the man got in a car nearby, to take down the license number, then call the police back.
Paris was shoveling snow in front of a store near Reid's when the suspect walked past him, turned a corner and headed down the alley beside Grace's Pizza. When Landsdown got to Paris, he said, "That man just robbed the bank!"
"I dropped my shovel and took off after him," Paris said. "I don't mind jumping in."
All three men ran after the suspect, followed by Tarpley, who had also figured out what happened. The suspect broke into a run when he realized he was being chased, stripping off a wig as he ran.
Paris reached the man first on a hill behind Spike's. He and Landsdown piled on top of the suspected robber and pinned his arms down.
"Well, was it worth it?" Paris asked the man.
"No," he replied.
Seconds later, "cops came from every direction," Landsdown said. Police spokeswoman Shelly Alley said police received the suspicious person call at 10:51 a.m., about five minutes before they knew the bank had been robbed. At 10:57 a.m., the man was in custody.
Hats off to those guys for pitching in, taking a chance, and catching a bank robber.
And, another noteworthy aspect of this story is that there had been an image of the bank robber captured by surveillance cameras shown on television and in print. I've complained before about the lack of a video image of El Banco Bandido, and I believe the reason for that is the poor quality of the video equipment used in the banks out here. But, he'll eventually get caught, and perhaps we'll have a story as exiting to tell as the one from Roanoke.
Thanks to Ken Lammers of Crimlaw for the link.
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