Florida sniper sends attempted bank robber to the hereafter with a well-placed shot: 'A chaotic scene'



A convicted felon claiming to have a bomb held up a bank and took two hostages Tuesday in Fort Myers, Florida. When negotiations failed and the suspect appeared ready to slash a woman's throat, a SWAT sniper restored order with a well-placed shot.

Shortly after 11 a.m., the Lee County Sheriff's Office received a report of a robbery in progress with multiple hostages at the Bank of America in Bell Tower. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during a press briefing Tuesday, "It was a chaotic scene."

A man armed with a knife and claiming to have a bomb reportedly stormed the bank and leaped over the counter. The suspect has been identified as 36-year-old Sterling Ramon Alavache.

The LCSO indicated that Alavache is a convicted felon with an extensive criminal history, including drug trafficking, aggravated assault, and unlawfully carrying a concealed firearm in various states. WZVN-TV noted that Alavache had three prior arrests just in Charlotte County.

With the support of the FBI, the LCSO pulled out all the stops to resolve the incident, deploying a robotic dog, a SWAT team, electronics surveillance, and drones.

"A group of deputies immediately went into that building ... and began to — as people, dozens of people ran out — they began to secure all other portions of the building while simultaneously hostage negotiations began with our suspect," said Marceno.

New Video: Suspect dead after claiming to have explosives inside Fort Myers Bank of America at Bell Tower and US 41 in both directions has been reopened.\nhttps://t.co/JjLSmcCdiv
— (@)

Deputies attempted to negotiate with Alavache until he reportedly began to rough up the hostages.

Marceno said that "at one point during negotiations he became physical. He started to put one of the hostages in like a headlock and he had the knife to her throat. SWAT team was in place. When he presented deadly force like that, our SWAT sniper shot and killed the suspect. We were in fear for her life and safety."

Both hostages and all deputies apparently escaped the ordeal unscathed.

Authorities did not confirm whether or not Alavache did in fact have an explosive device on his person.

"It's a sad day when innocent lives are placed in jeopardy due to the senseless acts of others," the sheriff said in a subsequent statement. "My family members were faced with a tough decision today to neutralize an active threat to the public, during a very volatile situation. Let this serve as a reminder of how important it is to remain vigilant."

The LCSO confirmed to WZVN that the sniper who made the lethal shot at the bank has been placed on administrative leave per protocol.

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'Most wanted' bank robber obsessed with Steve McQueen movie who pulled off historic heist 52 years ago is finally unmasked



A historic bank heist 52 years ago was investigated by two U.S. Marshals — who were father and son — but the bank robber evaded them until his passing. The decades-old cold case in Ohio has finally been solved, but only after the "most wanted" suspect passed away.

On Friday, July 11, 1969, a 20-year-old employee of Cleveland's Society National Bank stole $215,000, which is the modern equivalent to $1.7 million. The bank teller, Theodore "Ted" Conrad, "walked into his job ... [and] walked out at the end of the day with $215,000 in a paper bag and vanished," according to the U.S. Marshals Service. The heist was one of the biggest bank robberies in Cleveland history.

The bank didn't realize that it had been robbed until Monday. When Conrad didn't report to work, it tipped off police that he was the suspect.

Authorities would never track down Theodore Conrad to charge him with the bank robbery. However, law enforcement finally cracked the cold case on Friday — 52 years later.

The bank robber was previously featured on "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries." Investigators chased leads on Conrad's whereabouts around the country, including Washington D.C., Inglewood, California, western Texas, Oregon, and Honolulu, Hawaii. However, Conrad moved to a suburb of Boston and was living by the alias Thomas Randele.

He set up a new life in Massachusetts, marrying Kathy (Mahan) Randele, with whom he had a daughter. The bank robber became a local golf pro and sold luxury cars.

"He was a fixture in a small town," Cleveland.com reported. "The stolen money didn't last, as he had struggled financially in recent years, records show."

In a statement released on Friday, the U.S. Marshals revealed that Conrad was inspired by the "The Thomas Crown Affair" movie from 1968.

"A year before the Cleveland bank robbery, Conrad became obsessed with the 1968 Steve McQueen film 'The Thomas Crown Affair,'" the statement read. "The movie was based on the bank robbery for sport by a millionaire businessman, and Conrad saw it more than a half dozen times. From there he bragged to his friends about how easy it would be to take money from the bank and even told them he planned to do so."

It is likely that Conrad was so obsessed with the movie that he changed his name to "Thomas," the same first name as McQueen's "Thomas Crown" character in the movie.

Conrad moved to a suburb of Boston, not far from where "The Thomas Crown Affair" movie was filmed. The film was one of the first movies almost entirely filmed around Boston.

One of America\u2019s Most Wanted Fugitives Identified After 52 Years. Mystery solved of Ted Conrad, who pulled off one of the biggest bank robberies in Cleveland, Ohio history.pic.twitter.com/Jg4cbDmkfH

— U.S. Marshals (@USMarshalsHQ) 1636731005

The case went cold for decades until this year when Thomas Randele of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, died from lung cancer in May. U.S. Marshals were able to "match documents that Conrad completed in the 1960s with documents Randele completed, including documents from when Randele filed for Bankruptcy in Boston Federal Court in 2014."

For one U.S. Marshal, the infamous bank robbery haunted his family for decades. Peter J. Elliott — U.S. Marshal for Northern Ohio — was on the hunt for Conrad, as was his father, who was also a Marshal.

"This is a case I know all too well," Elliott said. "My father, John K. Elliott, was a dedicated career Deputy United States Marshal in Cleveland from 1969 until his retirement in 1990. My father took an interest in this case early because Conrad lived and worked near us in the late 1960s."

"My father never stopped searching for Conrad and always wanted closure up until his death in 2020," Elliott explained. "We were able to match some of the documents that my father uncovered from Conrad's college days in the 1960s with documents from Randele that led to his identification."

"I hope my father is resting a little easier today knowing his investigation and his United States Marshals Service brought closure to this decades-long mystery," he concluded. "Everything in real life doesn't always end like in the movies."

Conrad's widow said that her husband was a "great man."

Officials Identify Fugitive 52 Years After One of Cleveland's Biggest Bank Heists www.youtube.com

Texas man borrowed BMW from a dealership, robbed a bank, then returned to buy the car with the stolen money



A Texas man drove a BMW loaned to him from a dealership to rob a bank, before heading back to the dealership to use the stolen money as a down payment on the vehicle — and now he has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Eric Dion Warren, 50, pleaded guilty to the bank robbery last August and on Tuesday, he was handed the maximum sentence for his crime, the Department of Justice announced in a news release.

Court documents show that in June 2019 Warren was finalizing the purchase of a black BMW at an auto dealership in Lubbock, Texas, when he took the vehicle out for a test drive.

He then allegedly drove the vehicle to AIM Bank in Wolfforth, Texas. Once there, he entered the bank and approached one of the tellers, placing a paper bag from a fast-food restaurant on the counter along with a note of demands.

"This is a f***ing robbery. Play with me and die. I want $10,000 in $50 and $100 bills now you got 1 minute or I will kill you," the note allegedly read.

"I ain't playing around, I only want $100s and and $50s," Warren said as he pulled out what appeared to be a handgun.

After the teller gave Warren the money, which included strapped $20 bills with recorded serial numbers, he reportedly fled the scene, warning the teller not to "push any buttons."

About 15 minutes after the robbery, Warren arrived back at the car dealership in Lubbock and, according to official testimony, literally started waving the cash he had just illegally obtained at employees. He eventually entered the dealership's finance office and attempted to purchase the car using $3,000 cash as a down payment.

But it wasn't too long before Warren's scheme began to fall apart. While he was in the finance office, an employee at the dealership was tipped off about the bank robbery and matched the vehicle description to the one the dealership had just loaned to Warren. The employee then alerted law enforcement and, just like that, Warren's plot was foiled.

The Justice Department noted that Warren was found in possession of cash in excess of $5,000, the strapped $20 bills, the demand note, and a painted pellet gun which resembled a real handgun.

Open, shut case.

Here's more on the story:

Texas Man Drove Dealership Loaner Car To Rob Bank, Tried To Used Loot To Buy BMW youtu.be