Man charged with Cody bank robbery

Posted 7/6/12

 

The affidavit says a man matching Beckstead’s description had handed the First Bank of Wyoming teller a note demanding cash and, speaking softly, said, “I’m here to rob you, give me all your 100s and 50s.”

He walked away from the …

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Man charged with Cody bank robbery

Posted

Possibly a suspect in other states as well

Police in Bismarck, N.D., on Wednesday arrested an Ogden, Utah, man who’s been charged by federal prosecutors with robbing banks in Cody and Cheyenne in June.

Joshua Michael Beckstead, 32, made his initial court appearance on Thursday in North Dakota on a warrant from Wyoming’s U.S. District Court. Tellers at First Bank of Wyoming and Sunlight Credit Union in Cody each picked Beckstead out of a photo lineup as the man who respectively robbed, and attempted to rob, their institutions on June 19, according to an affidavit from Lander FBI special agent David Donati filed in the case. Two tellers at Cheyenne’s American National Bank similiarly picked Beckstead out of a photo lineup as the man who robbed the bank on June 15, Donati wrote.

 

 

The affidavit says a man matching Beckstead’s description had handed the First Bank of Wyoming teller a note demanding cash and, speaking softly, said, “I’m here to rob you, give me all your 100s and 50s.”

He walked away from the downtown Cody location with $3,350, including a “bait pack” of money with recorded serial numbers.

That robbery followed an aborted robbery attempt earlier that morning at Sunlight Federal Credit Union, also in Cody. In that instance, a man with a similar description handed a teller a note, reading something like “empty your drawer fast.” He left without any cash after the teller explained she had no money in her drawer, the affidavit says.

The reported circumstances were similar on June 15 at American National Bank in Cheyenne. The man, also matching Beckstead’s description, handed the teller demanding cash and left on foot with $2,836.

Donati said he later learned the Wyoming robberies resembled a June 9 robbery in Maysville, Okla., and a May 15 bank robbery in Ogden.

More information became available as police and the FBI in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Utah compared notes on all five incidents, eventually leading to a warrant for Beckstead that was issued Tuesday, and his arrest on Wednesday.

Donati’s affidavit also references a June 26 bank robbery in Columbus, Mont., where the suspect matched Beckstead’s description.

Beckstead had been released on a furlough from the Ogden, Utah jail for a May 8 dental appointment but never returned to jail, the affidavit says. He was being held on forgery charges.

A detention and preliminary hearing for Beckstead, where the evidence will be weighed by a judge and bond set, is scheduled for July 10 in North Dakota. He’ll remain in federal custody until then.

(CJ Baker contributed reporting to this story.)

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