A Powell’s Creek, Ky., man was arrested Tuesday by officers with the Pikeville Police Department, just five hours after he allegedly robbed a Pikeville bank.
Investigators say it may not have been the first robbery for which Jason Robinson, 29, of Powell’s Creek, was responsible.
Det. Phillip Reed said Tuesday that at about 11:23 a.m., a male wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap, sunglasses and a gray shirt, walked into the Town Mountain Branch of Community Trust Bank and handed a teller a note, telling her he wanted “all the money.”
“He threatened to shoot them,” Reed said, but added bank employees did not see a gun. “He kept his hands concealed.”
The male then fled the scene in a white minivan driven by a female, according to witnesses, who didn’t see the direction the van traveled when it left the bank.
The robber did get away with some cash from the Pikeville bank Tuesday.
“He got away with a little over $3,900,” Reed said.
Following the robbery, police made two stops of vehicles believed to be connected to the robbery. The driver of the vehicle stopped first turned out to be a witness to the robbery, police said.
The driver of the second vehicle, stopped at Pikeville High School, was found to not be connected to the robbery, but he was arrested on a charge of driving on a suspended license.
However, Reed said the break in the case came when he began communicating with investigators in other areas about the case.
“Through talking with investigators involved in previous bank robberies, we found they all matched,” Reed said.
The most compelling match, Reed said, was a bank robbery that occurred Monday in Middlesboro.
The Middlesboro Daily News reported that on Monday a lone male allegedly entered the Community Trust Bank branch there and asked about opening up a new account.
Sometime during the transaction, the newspaper reported, the man brandished a weapon and demanded money from bank employees. The newspaper reported that the man did make away with some cash in that robbery.
Reed said that Robinson, prior to the robbery in Middlesboro, entered the branch and used his grandfather’s Social Security number to check on an account.
“He later went back and robbed the bank,” Reed said.
After making the connection, Reed said, police went to the house where Robinson lives on Powell’s Creek and took him into custody, and found evidence as well, including a Boston Red Sox cap matching the one worn by the robber seen in the Pikeville Community Trust branch’s surveillance video.
Robinson was expected to be booked into the Pike County Detention Center Tuesday night on a charge of first-degree robbery.
While police were questioning Robinson, a female thought to be the driver of the white minivan in which Robinson fled the scene of the Pikeville robbery, turned herself in at the Pikeville Police Department.
She was driving a white minivan, believed to be the getaway vehicle.
Reed said the female, who was not immediately identified, is likely to be charged as well.
The robbery remains under investigation.
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