Four Houston men were busted and in custody on aggravated robbery charges 17 minutes after Missouri City police were called to a bank robbery in progress.
At 11:58 a.m. Friday, the Missouri City Police Department was called to a Wachovia Bank branch at 10310 State Highway 6, according to a police report. By 12:15 p.m., four Houston men had been arrested and charged in the crime.
The four, John Cravens, 28; Christopher Brown, 27; Kendrick Green, 27; and Jeremy Lincoln, 29, all are being held in Fort Bend County Jail, a police spokesman said.
Witnesses at the bank told police a White Didge Intrepid passenger car pulled up to the bank just before noon, and two armed men got out and hurried into the bank.
One of them, brandishing a shotgun, held bank employees at bay while the other, armed with a handgun, leapt over the bank counter and demanded tellers turn over their cash to him, said Missouri City Police Capt. John Bailey.
The tellers complied, and the two ran back outside where a driver was waiting in the car. But before the car could get out of the parking lot, a dye pack inside a bag full of money exploded, and the accompanying gas emission apparently overcame the three men in the car.
All three jumped out, dropping some of the cash as they ran, Bailey said. They headed for a wooded area behind a Kroger store on Highway 6 near the Fort Bend Tollway.
Bailey said almost immediately after the bank robbery, witnesses began calling in from their cell phones with information on events and the location of the suspects.
As they set up a parimeter around the area of the robbery, police learned the three suspects had made contact with a second getaway vehicle – a silver Buick – and a fourth suspect was driving away with them in a rural area near Diamond Springs and Watts Plantation.
Patrol officers easily took them into custody without incident.
At one point while driving in the Buick, one of the suspects apparently threw money out of the car window, Bailey said.
Nonetheless, “a majority if not all the money was recovered,” he said, adding, “it doesn’t get any better than this.”
13. July 2009 at 3:47 pm
Where was the armed security guard? Banks don’t think they need them anymore.
13. July 2009 at 2:04 pm
Yep, anyone who’s ever seen a bank heist in a movie, or watched the TV news knows about dye packs. Whadda bunch of idiots.
Also, it’s spelled “perimeter”, not “parimeter” as written above.
13. July 2009 at 10:38 am
Amateurs. haha