Kokomo police are investigating a possible link between the Dec. 28 robbery of the STAR Financial Bank branch on East Markland Avenue and recent robberies in Anderson and Marion.
KPD Maj. Brian Seldon confirmed a matching description of the suspect and vehicle linked the Kokomo robbery with Wednesday morning’s robbery of the Ameriana Bank branch on the south side of Anderson.
The Anderson Herald Bulletin reported a masked man entered the Ameriana branch shortly before 10 a.m., gave a note to a teller demanding cash, took cash from the teller, then repeated the action with a second teller.
As with the Kokomo robbery, the assailant didn’t show a weapon, but Anderson detectives told The Herald Bulletin it was clear the man was armed. Kokomo police said it appeared the man had a weapon under one of the three layers of jackets he was wearing.
The most obvious detail linking all three robberies was that, in each case, the assailant was wearing an “old man mask” — a rubber mask covering the entire head, and capped with white hair. In each case, the man wore a baseball cap.
In Kokomo, witnesses told police the man was white, approximately 5 feet 9 inches with a heavy build. That matches the build of the man who robbed the Anderson bank.
The Herald Bulletin reported that man fled the bank in a “dark two-door Chevrolet, possibly a late 1990s or early 2000s Cavalier.”
That jibes with a description from the Kokomo robbery of a small, two-door, blue or black vehicle.
Kokomo police also are looking at similarities between the Dec. 28 robbery and the Jan. 14 robbery of the Regions Bank in Marion. The robber in that incident wore an old man mask, had a similar clothing description, but was described as being shorter than the man described by witnesses to the Kokomo and Anderson robberies.
Police warned against paying too much heed to that discrepancy, saying witness descriptions are often off.
Scott Smith can be reached at 765-454-8569 or at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
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