By Shawn McGrath
August 19, 2008 10:06 pm
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ANDERSON — Anderson police are investigating whether a pair of men arrested Saturday in Hendricks County on suspicion of bank robbery are responsible for more than a dozen bank holdups, including one in Anderson in October.
Hendricks County sheriff’s deputies and Avon police arrested Kyle T. Cyphers, 22, Redkey, and Donald L. Sorrell, 35, Muncie, on suspicion of armed robbery. Sorrell allegedly robbed Lincoln Bank, 7648 E. U.S. 36, Avon, shortly before 10 a.m., while Cyphers is accused of aiding in the holdup.
According to court documents filed in Hendricks and Madison counties:
The men are accused of stealing a 1983 Chevrolet pickup from the 3100 block of Columbus Avenue in Anderson at about 1 a.m. Saturday. They then drove to Avon, Sorrell robbed the bank and fled the scene.
Witnesses were able to provide a description of the vehicle, and they were apprehended a short while later in a 2001 Jeep Cherokee. The stolen pickup was apparently a “switch car” they had taken with the intention of abandoning it for the Jeep after the robbery.
During a search of the Cherokee, detectives found a loaded .45-caliber handgun. Sorrell had about $950 when he was taken into custody, and Cypher had slightly more than $600. Lincoln Bank employees told police about $1,500 was stolen.
Prosecutors charged Sorrell with 15 felonies and several misdemeanors on Monday, including armed robbery and criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon. He was being held in the Hendricks County Jail on $10,000 bond.
Cyphers is being held in the Madison County Jail without bond, for allegedly taking the pickup. He made an initial court appearance Tuesday, but no charges have been filed against him in Madison County. Prosecutors asked for extra three days to file formal charges locally.
Indianapolis-based FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne said federal investigators are looking into whether the two men are responsible for about a dozen bank robberies since July 2007. Similar bank robberies were reported in Kokomo, Marion and Muncie, among others.
Osborne said each robbery was committed by a white male armed with a weapon and a suspected switch car was found near the scene. Osborne said the Anderson holdup happened at Madison County Federal Credit Union, 614 E. 53rd St., on Oct. 10, 2007.
In that robbery, a white male wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt went into the bank and demanded money from several tellers. The robber fled the scene in a pickup truck stolen in Muncie after getting an undisclosed amount of cash. The pickup was found abandoned a few blocks from scene. Witnesses told police the suspect then got into a sport-utility vehicle driven by a woman, according to reports published in The Herald Bulletin.
While saying the robberies are similar, Osborne said it’s too early to know if Cyphers and Sorrell are responsible for all of the holdups. She said the FBI is working with local police departments to solve the crimes.
“It’s too early to tell which ones they’re responsible for,” Osborne said. “I don’t want to tie them to (the Anderson) robbery until we know what we have here. The (method of operation) is similar in the different robberies.”
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