Woman charged with robbing bank with phony bomb

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A northwest Missouri woman who robbed a bank after saying she was "wired" and that a van in front of a school was loaded with explosives was charged Friday, authorities said.

Evelyn Louise Ranes, 49, of Holt, Mo., was charged with stealing about $3,922 on Thursday from Lathrop Bank in Lathrop, U.S Attorney Todd Graves said.

In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, prosecutors said Ranes entered the bank and placed a black leather bag on the counter at a teller station. She was wearing dark glasses with what appeared to be a miniature camera taped to the glasses and appeared to be wearing an earpiece with a boom-style microphone.

Ranes told the clerk that a van at a school was filled with explosives and pointed to a device around her neck and claimed to be "wired," according to the affidavit. Ranes continually pushed at her ear, as though she were listening to instructions through an earpiece, and talked into the boom microphone as though she were talking to someone over a radio or cellular phone

Two tellers placed money into the bag, and Ranes told them not to sound an alarm or let anyone leave the bank for 10 minutes, prosecutors said.

"If anything happens to me," Ranes said, according to the affidavit, "tell my family I love them."

As Ranes left the bank, an employee saw her driving a Ford Explorer. Law enforcement officers identified the vehicle, went to her home, entered through the open front door and found Ranes upstairs, where she was taken into custody.

Prosecutors said Ranes told police there was no bomb and the device around her neck was a hoax -- a croquet wicket and electrical outlet adaptor wrapped together in tape. Ranes also told officers she had taped an earpiece to her glasses to make it resemble a camera lens.

Ranes said she got the idea from a recent incident in Pennsylvania, the affidavit said.

FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said the woman appeared to be copying the Aug. 28 robbery in Erie, Pa., that involved a pizza delivery man who died when a locked, metal collar around his neck exploded. Moments before he died, Brian Douglas Wells, 46, told police that someone had forced him to rob the bank by putting the bomb on him and set a timer for it to explode.