Southern Bank robbed at gunpoint

By Scott Wright

CENTRE — Two men armed with handguns stormed into Southern Bank Thursday morning and almost got away with a bag full of money — until their seemingly well-laid plan blew up in their faces. Literally.

A dye bomb slipped inside the bag by an alert teller exploded just as the two men pulled out of the bank parking lot, sending a cloud of red smoke billowing into the air. Moments later, a Cherokee County Sheriff's Department deputy spotted the discarded bag lying in the middle of Main Street. At around the same time, the Centre Police Department received word of the robbery.

Police and deputies rushed to the scene, where they discovered the bank staff upset but unharmed. An eyewitness said one of the suspects opened the door of a silver getaway car and tossed the bag seconds after leaving the parking lot. They then turned onto Pratt Street and eventually escaped.

The suspects, described as black males in a Centre Police Dept. press release, eluded authorities from several law enforcement agencies. Centre Police Chief Val Courtney said more detailed descriptions were unavailable from witnesses because the suspects were wearing ski masks and baggy clothing with long sleeves.

Officers believe the suspects may have used a second getaway car to leave the area unnoticed within minutes of the robbery.

“They were in and out pretty fast,” said Courtney. “They went from entering the bank to swapping cars in about three minutes, we believe.”

WEIS-AM reported that one of the men was armed with a handgun, and the other with an assault rifle.

Courtney said rumors that the suspects were traveling on foot in the neighborhoods adjacent to West Main Street were inaccurate.

“We found the car abandoned on the side of the road on David Street, which is behind the federal building,” Courtney said. “We brought the dogs in just in case they might have taken to the woods, but we suspect they jumped into another car and fled the area almost immediately.”

The car that pulled away from the bank, a 1989 Buick, was reported stolen from Anniston Nov. 27. It was taken into custody by the Sheriff's Department to be searched for fingerprints and other clues.

“It was pretty well planned,” Courtney said. “They may have been trying to get the dye bomb out of the bag when it went off, so they just tossed the bag.”

A spokesman for the FBI said the suspects' descriptions match those of a pair believed to have conducted several other robberies in adjacent counties recently.

Courtney said he doesn't know exactly how much money was taken, because the FBI confiscated the bills and sent them to a forensics lab in Anniston for analysis.

“They're planning to count it today and send it to the FBI office in Birmingham,” Courtney said Friday.

Southern Bank employees in Centre declined to comment.