Six for six

Friday morning’s robbery of the Union Bank branch at 48th and Normal Blvd. turned out to be the big event of the week. I’m sure it will be on Officer Brian Ward’s list of career highlights. I thought that clearing this string of burglaries with four arrests would be the big story of the week, but that got a bit overshadowed.

The digital footprints got the burglars, but an alert citizen was the key to the bank robbery. The citizen (I’m not sure he wants to be publicly identified, so I’ll just refer to him as Chuck) saw the suspect run out the door and dash to a nearby car. Thinking that odd, he followed and phoned 911. Yes, indeed, there had just been a robbery. Chuck vectored patrol cars in about a half mile away, at Normal Blvd. and South Street, and after a short pursuit the arrest was made.

Chuck was sitting in the lobby of the police station a few minutes later, waiting to give a statement to an investigator, when he received a bearhug and a high five from the chief of police. Wow, it just amazes me sometimes how citizens help us out. Talk about community policing!

The Lincoln Journal Star did a nice article about the recent trend in bank robberies. This is a low-yield crime in Lincoln, I’d say. Take the “by the clock” link to a neat roll-over map.

I used to drop my daughter off at the bank where this robbery occurred, one of the several Union Bank branches where she worked in college. Son, too, a few years earlier. I take an especially dim view of bank robbery for personal reasons. Both of my children are still in banking, Kelly at the SAC Federal Credit Union in Omaha, TJ here in Lincoln at Union Bank. I enjoyed calling them both on Friday evening to, well, gloat.