Lee Noble
A cross-dressing bank robber hit an Anderson bank Thursday and got away. It’s the city’s second bank robbery in the last eight days.
At noon, the lone gunman entered Key Bank, 2244 Broadway.
“He just came in and announced that he was there to rob the bank, pointing his gun at employees,” said Anderson detective Joel Sandefur. “It was similar to a bank takeover.”
Sandefur said a bank takeover is when the robber demands cooperation from all present at the bank instead of just passing a note to a teller demanding money.
Witnesses described the assailant as a mustachioed young black male about five-feet-10 inches tall. The man wore a woman’s wig, a hooded sweatshirt and a skirt to conceal his identity, according to a news release from APD.
He had a light to medium complexion and a medium build, according to witnesses.
The man made away with an undisclosed amount of money. A black sport-utility vehicle picked up the suspect behind the bank near the Low Cost Prescriptions building, according to police reports.
“They were last seen traveling south down an alley from the bank,” Sandefur said.
The SUV had a temporary paper license plate.
Police spent much of Thursday afternoon looking for cars and men who matched the descriptions of those involved in the robbery.
“We set up a perimeter around the bank and conducted a search of the area for that vehicle but they got away,” the detective said.
APD and the Muncie branch of the FBI now share responsibilities for the investigation.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to collect some trace evidence from the scene that might link us to persons responsible for this,” Sandefur said.
Police have no leads to report yet, but do have surveillance photographs from bank security cameras.
An armed robber hit a Madison Community Bank branch on Nichol Avenue Oct. 11, but police arrested a suspect later that night.
Bank robberies have been rare in Anderson for the last few years. They have been so few that this additional one makes a for a misleading statistical difference, Sandefur said.
“We’ve doubled our bank robberies now because we only had one last year,” he said. “We’ve been pretty fortunate over the last couple years — bank robberies seemed to be on the decline. Now they seem to be on the increase.”
If anyone has information that may help police find the assailants, they should call APD detectives at (765)648-6730, or the Muncie FBI office at (765)282-1905. If tipsters wish to remain anonymous, they may call Crime Stoppers at (765)649-8310.
