Bank robbed, suspect at large

Many tips have flowed into Iola police headquarters since a man walked out of Great Southern Bank, 119 E. Madison Ave., shortly after noon Thursday with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The man, described by Chief of Police Jared Warner as 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-8, medium build, wearing a gray long-sleeved T-shirt with buttons on the front, blue jeans, a dark-colored baseball cap and sunglasses, handed a teller a note demanding cash. He was given an undisclosed sum.
Warner said the ongoing investigation prevented him from revealing whether the man was armed.
“We don’t think he was local,” Warner added. “If he were, someone would have recognized him by now.”
Several images of the robber were recorded by bank surveillance cameras and published by the media, including the Register today and Thursday evening on its website and social media.
“We have gotten tips from Kansas City, Augusta and several states, including Louisiana,” Warner said.
Video showed the man leaving the bank by its east-side entrance and “we are under the impression he went south once outside the bank,” he said.
Whether an accomplice and vehicle were involved is conjecture.
Warner said Iola police officers responded immediately, as did Allen County officers. Those agencies continue to work together on the investigation, along with resources from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Anyone with a tip is encouraged to call police headquarters at 365-4960. Call 911 if the suspect is sighted, “and then let the officers handle it,” Warner said. “We don’t want anyone other than law enforcement dealing with a person who might be the suspect.”
Great Southern has offered a $3,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the robbery.
The bank robbery was the first in Iola in recent memory. A single robber took cash from the Citizens Bank in Kincaid a few years and never was apprehended.
A second robbery attempt in Kincaid failed when two men tried to entry the bank, but employees wouldn’t admit them. They were apprehended the same day, after a short gunfight with Highway Patrol troopers in Linn County; no one was injured.