A tip from an alert citizen helped Charleston Police identify the suspect of a series of robberies, including this week's heist at the Summit Community Bank.
Police have released this image of the suspect of the robbery at Summit Community Bank
Now police in Missouri have a manhunt underway to find Joseph Paul Young of Rogersville, Mo.
Young was identified because detectives sent out images of the suspect in Tuesday's robbery of the Summit Community Bank at Southridge Centre and begged people to help them identify the man.
They said the man was wanted in a series of bank robberies in South Dakota, Minnesota, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia but no one had named him yet.
Officers said they got a vague call from a concerned citizen this week. It hit pay dirt.
The caller said he had noticed a truck matching the description police had released. It was a black Chevrolet pickup with a Missouri plate.
He saw the truck at 6:15 the morning of the robbery at a totally different bank on Charleston's West Side.
"The guy was driving slow, so he assumed he was lost," said Steve Cooper, chief of detectives for the Charleston Police Department. "Our informant said he just wanted to pass it along."
The tip was enough for Charleston Police to start investigating.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from the First Bank of Charleston. The caller said he had seen the driver entering the lot there, and it was the closest business where surveillance might be found.
The detectives realized from overhead surveillance that the man had stopped and used the bank's ATM.
"He was checking his personal account," Cooper said.
The officers obtained video from the machine and realized it captured an image that looked exactly like their suspect.
"I'll admit a cheer went out in the detective bureau," Cooper said. "It sounded like a football game."
Tracing the man's personal identification number to his account at Guaranty Bank of Springfield, Mo., the detectives got his name and address. Local officers contacted the Greene County Sheriff's Department of Springfield, Mo., where investigators were able to look up the prior record of Joseph Paul Young.
The Missouri Highway Patrol and the FBI then staked out Young's home overnight and finally raided it early today.
"As they were pulling onto his property, he had seen them approach and jumped into his truck," Cooper said.
"He gunned his truck and took off. He crashed the vehicle a couple of miles away, ran into a wooded area and jumped into a culvert."
A tip from an alert citizen helped Charleston Police identify the suspect of a series of robberies, including this week's heist at the Summit Community Bank.
Now police in Missouri have a manhunt underway to find Joseph Paul Young of Rogersville, Mo.
Young was identified because detectives sent out images of the suspect in Tuesday's robbery of the Summit Community Bank at Southridge Centre and begged people to help them identify the man.
They said the man was wanted in a series of bank robberies in South Dakota, Minnesota, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia but no one had named him yet.
Officers said they got a vague call from a concerned citizen this week. It hit pay dirt.
The caller said he had noticed a truck matching the description police had released. It was a black Chevrolet pickup with a Missouri plate.
He saw the truck at 6:15 the morning of the robbery at a totally different bank on Charleston's West Side.
"The guy was driving slow, so he assumed he was lost," said Steve Cooper, chief of detectives for the Charleston Police Department. "Our informant said he just wanted to pass it along."
The tip was enough for Charleston Police to start investigating.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from the First Bank of Charleston. The caller said he had seen the driver entering the lot there, and it was the closest business where surveillance might be found.
The detectives realized from overhead surveillance that the man had stopped and used the bank's ATM.
"He was checking his personal account," Cooper said.
The officers obtained video from the machine and realized it captured an image that looked exactly like their suspect.
"I'll admit a cheer went out in the detective bureau," Cooper said. "It sounded like a football game."
Tracing the man's personal identification number to his account at Guaranty Bank of Springfield, Mo., the detectives got his name and address. Local officers contacted the Greene County Sheriff's Department of Springfield, Mo., where investigators were able to look up the prior record of Joseph Paul Young.
The Missouri Highway Patrol and the FBI then staked out Young's home overnight and finally raided it early today.
"As they were pulling onto his property, he had seen them approach and jumped into his truck," Cooper said.
"He gunned his truck and took off. He crashed the vehicle a couple of miles away, ran into a wooded area and jumped into a culvert."
Because of the possible danger, officers were not able to pursue him directly into the water. Now a manhunt is underway to find Young, Cooper said.
The Charleston Police Department has two bank robbery warrants on file for Young for Tuesday's robbery as well as the City National Bank robbery in Kanawha City in June of this year, Cooper said.
Police initially said the man robbed more 20 banks across the country.
However, information coming in to local investigators indicates that additional bank robberies might be related.
"I don't have any reason to believe he has any ties to the Charleston area," Cooper said. "He has robbed banks all across the country. His pattern was a rational path based on where he lives."
He said the distance Young is accused of traveling for the crimes made it harder for anyone to catch the robber.
"What you can usually expect is someone to call and say I know Joseph Paul Young from junior high," Cooper said. "What happened in this case was an alert citizen recognized an out-of-place vehicle and thought to call."
In the most recent Charleston robbery, the man walked into Summit Community Bank on Mountaineer Boulevard about 9 a.m. Tuesday. The silent alarm was triggered shortly after that.
Police say the man implied that he had a weapon and demanded money from two tellers. Police haven't been able to determine whether or not the man used a weapon but Cooper considered the man to be armed and "an extremely dangerous individual".
The man escaped with a large amount of cash in a dark colored Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck.
Using the surveillance video from the bank, investigators determined that the man in the video is the same man who robbed two branches of City National Bank in Kanawha County earlier in the year.
Between those two robberies, the man got away with about $50,000, Cooper said.
"He had been successful up to this point," Cooper said. "With technology and a little luck, you can get away with it for a while."
Bank robbery is a felony punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison.
Local officials could prosecute Young.
"We have first dibs since we were the first to solve this," Cooper said.
But he said it's more likely the FBI would prosecute Young for all the robberies in various states.
"I would actually ask them to do that," he said. "He crossed state lines to rob a bank. That's classic FBI jurisdiction."
http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/south-dakotalink goes here
its me(2:21pm 08-25-2008)
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they have 2 caught me first and im allready working on plane B. thanks
Bobsowv(8:03pm 08-23-2008)
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J. - You are a classic IDIOT, you certainly would not feel the way you do if you were victimized by a thug w/a gun. I agree with torgo34. Don't think this guy is slick...it was just dumb luck. He is probably as smart as J.
J(11:05pm 08-21-2008)
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They even HAD him, and he split and got away, even with dogs after him! Hahahahaha! Go! Go! Go!
Why are they talking like they've got him already? "We have first dibs", etc. He'll probably be out of this state before he's caught (if he's caught).
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Brook
http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/south-dakotalink goes here
Why are they talking like they've got him already? "We have first dibs", etc. He'll probably be out of this state before he's caught (if he's caught).