Wright County Sheriff Not Ruling out Connections in Bank Robberies

Wright County Sherriff Joe Hagerty has seen a few bank holdups in his time.

“I think, in the last few years, there have been about seven that I can recall. Each time, we’ve been able to help catch the guys responsible.”

He’s hopeful that will be the case this time, about a week after Premier Banks of Albertville was robbed at gunpoint.

He said he isn’t certain the robbery here is tied to bank hits in places such as Arden Hills, Richfield, Northfield and Shakopee, but he isn’t ruling anything out.

“You look at the surveillance photos from ours and the Arden Hills holdup last weekend, and they’re awfully similar. You’re just trying to determine the guy’s size by looking at a tape, but it’s pretty close.

Now, another robbery hit Wright County last night.

The Wright County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a robbery at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov 16 at the Tesoro station, 411 Custer Street East, South Haven.

A subject reached across the counter while the cash register was open and grabbed an undisclosed amount of cash from the till and fled from the store. No weapon was shown or implied by the suspect.

The suspect is described as a white male, in his early 20s, 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 11 inches tall, and was wearing a brown, zip up hooded jacket and blue jeans.

A search of the area for the suspect was conducted by Law Enforcement with negative results.

 “I think it’s probably unrelated, just because of the manner this one was done,” Hagerty said Thursday morning. “When someone strong arms someone like that, to get to the till, they’re usually pretty desperate. I think our bank robber has other motives.”

For now, Hagerty said his department continues to work with banks and convenience stores to keep employees safe. Training is done with employees and owners at most banks on how to handle a robbery situation.

“We don’t want anyone to try to be a hero in this case,” Hagerty said. “Anytime a suspect has a gun, it’s a dangerous situation.”

A Premier Banks executive said, ironically, training with Wright County Deputy Brian Johnson had “just been conducted that morning.”

Hagerty said customers, too, would be better off getting a description of any criminal activity, or a get-away vehicle, than trying to control the situation on their own.

“Keep those antennae up,” he said. “I think, with the amount of man power we have on this, we’ll get him. We just really want to get him before anyone is hurt.”