Cape bank suffers fifth robbery since 1998

A Cape Girardeau bank branch was robbed Thursday for the fifth time since 1998.

About 3 p.m., witnesses said, a 5-foot-8-inch man weighing about 160 pounds entered the Bank of America at Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive and yelled for everyone to get down. The thief did not show a gun but left a big piece of evidence -- the getaway car.

Ernest Jordan, a retired pastor, had just made a deposit when a man entered wearing a black windbreaker jacket and black sweat pants. His face was covered by a black sock cap with eyeholes cut out.

"I just asked one of the ladies if she enjoyed history trivia, and about that time this joker came in and dived across the counter and said, 'Everybody down!' " Jordan said, adding that the robber spoke with a deep Southern accent. "The girls dived to the floor, but I watched him.

"I thought it was a joke, a gag he was pulling on the girls. Then he started grabbing the money out of the drawer, and I knew it was a holdup. So I grabbed my cell phone."

Jordan said the thief told him four or five times to put the phone away.

"But in my mind I thought, 'Well, I'm bigger than he is. Unless he pulls a gun, I'm not about to get on the floor.'"

Then, Jordan said, he called the police.

The thief fled in a red Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. One of the bank employees rushed outside and jotted down the license plate number.

The car was found at the Food Giant parking lot about a mile north of the bank. Police say the owner of the car is an employee of the grocery store. Investigators took the car owner and her brother in for questioning but did not release her name. Police said Thursday night they are not considered suspects.

Police spokesman Jason Selzer said it's not known whether the thief fled on foot or had another car waiting at the grocery store. Investigators were analyzing surveillance video and processing the car for fingerprints Thursday night.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting the inquiry. It is the fifth robbery at the bank since 1998, the fourth since August of 2000. Prior to Thursday, the most recent robbery occurred Oct. 14.

The witnesses' description of Thursday's crime is very similar to the one that occurred in 2000, when a robber leaped over the counter, grabbed money from a teller's drawer, leaped back over and ran out a rear door. No weapon was used in that burglary either.

Witnesses in 2000 said the robber in his teens or 20s. They described him as athletic, saying he "leaped like a squirrel."

After the burglary in January 2004, the bank installed a chain-link security fence around the perimeter of the parking lot to prevent robbers from running out the back of the bank into neighbors yards. This was done on the advice of federal agents.

Only the robbery in January 2004 has been solved, police said.

bmiller@semissourian.com

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