BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Warren County sheriff's deputies and the FBI are investigating a rash of bank robberies in southern Warren County along U.S. 22. The three heists took place within the past month and could have been committed by the same people, local FBI spokesman Ed Boldt said Wednesday.
Wilmington Savings Bank in Wilmington was robbed Monday, but Mr. Boldt said investigators do not know if it is connected to the other three.
Money was taken in all of the bank robberies, though Mr. Boldt would not say how much. No one was injured.
The robber or robbers displayed a gun only in the Wilmington case, but police think the offenders were armed in each of the other ones based on the threats made, Mr. Boldt said.
In one bank robbery, two white men went into the bank while a third waited in a getaway car, he said. In the others, only one white man went inside the bank while a man waited outside in a car.
Though he would not say for certain that the offenders were the same, the coincidence is striking, he said.
"We are very much concerned the same group of people were involved," Mr. Boldt said. Last year, there was only one bank robbery in the county, he said.
The Warren County banks robbed were:
- First National Bank in Morrow on U.S. 22 on Aug. 11.
- First National Bank in Hamilton Township at U.S. 22 and Ohio 48 on Sept. 11.
- Lebanon Citizens National Bank in Roachester on U.S. 22 and Ohio 123 on Sept. 18.
