Alert neighbors tip off police before robbers strike Joplin bank

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- Neighbors and bank customers helped police nab one of two men suspected of robbing a bank and making their getaway, such as it was, on bicycles.

Even before the two masked men entered a UMB bank branch near downtown Joplin Tuesday morning, police had been tipped off.

A neighbor had watched as the men pulled up on bicycles in front of his house and put on the ski masks.

"I got my cell phone ready and thought, there's no way these guys are going to go into that bank," Terry Leeper told TV station KODE. "But sure enough, they took their bicycles and went right over to that bank, and I was already on the phone to 911."

Police Cpl. John Hollingsworth said the robbers jumped across a counter inside the bank, shoved a female teller away and began filling bags with cash from her drawer.

Neither man displayed a gun or made any threats indicating he had a weapon, Hollingsworth said.

The two men then bicycled away.

But a customer in the bank's drive-through lane saw the pair and followed them to an apartment complex, where they approached a vehicle in the parking lot.

One of the men pulled off his mask and threw his bag to the ground, causing the witness to think a crime might be in progress, Hollingsworth said. He said the witness pulled his vehicle up behind a car, blocking the men's escape.

Both robbers then ran, with one of them still carrying a money bag, Hollingsworth said.

The 20-year-old man who had dropped his bag was caught a few blocks away and was arrested, police said. The other man ran in a different direction and remained at large.

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Information from: The Joplin Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com