Times must be tough here as would be felons took our the slabbed version of the Allstate challenge, renamed it the Bank Robbery Challenge and proceeded to see how many banks could be robbed here in 24 hours. Thankfully no one was hurt. The Sun Herald tells the sad story of 4 banks and 4 robberies in 24 hours.
Robbers held up four Coast banks within 24 hours as of Friday afternoon.
Police scrambled in response to three of the robberies on Friday, which included a hostage situation with a highway pursuit and a manhunt through woods.
Two of the three robberies resulted in arrests by day’s end Friday. A fourth from Thursday night remained unsolved.
Authorities were hard-pressed to explain the sudden rise in bank heists. The cases are believed to be unrelated.
“When times are bad, you’re going to see a lot of armed robberies,” said Tom Payne, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Park campus in Long Beach.
The robberies were two in D’Iberville, one in Waveland and one in Biloxi.
The one in Waveland had the high drama of hostages and a high-speed chase. Authorities said a man with an assault rifle walked into the Keesler Federal Credit Union on U.S. 90 just before lunch Friday.
Shortly after a high-speed pursuit, two female hostages were freed and police charged Daniel George Corring, 19, with armed robbery and two counts of kidnapping. Corring was held on $2 million bond.
Waveland Police Chief Jimmy Varnell said police received a call from inside the bank around 11:50 a.m. Police believe Corring forced the two employees at gunpoint into the front seat of a 2007 Ford Fusion and made one of the women drive the getaway car. The car headed west on Old Spanish Trail and led police on a brief chase.
Police said the getaway car reached 98 mph on the narrow, two-lane Kiln-Waveland Cutoff. It appeared one of the hostages driving lost control around a curve and ran into a ditch.
Varnell said the robber jumped out and ran through a field with a bag of money in one hand and an assault rifle in the other. Two officers chased him and subdued him with a Taser. The hostages were not injured.
On Thursday at 4:28 p.m. in D’Iberville, a man robbed the Regions Bank on D’Iberville Boulevard. Harrison County sheriff’s officials said the man handed the teller a note demanding money.
Deputies described the robber as white, 6-feet-1 and about 150 pounds.
D’Iberville had its second holdup in two days Friday at 10:28 a.m., when a man robbed the Hancock Bank, also on D’Iberville Boulevard. An alleged accomplice was arrested shortly after the getaway truck ran out of gas. The suspected robber was captured less than four hours later in a manhunt that ended in Jackson County’s St. Martin community.
Kelly Glen Brown, 45, and Mary Hall, 40, each are charged with robbing the Hancock Bank. Brown, of Road 103, D’Iberville, and Hall, of Helen Drive, Gulfport, were held at the Harrison County jail. Bonds were set at $200,000 for Brown and $50,000 for Hall.
Sheriff’s officials said Brown leaned over the counter at Hancock Bank and grabbed cash from a teller’s drawer, then drove away in a black Dodge pickup with Hall. The couple made it as far as the Jackson County line on Interstate 10 before their pickup ran out of gas, said Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara.
Brown got out of the pickup and ran south and Hall was in the truck when a Jackson County patrol car spotted the pickup, Brisolara said.
A few hours later, at 2:24 p.m., Harrison County Sheriff’s Capt. Ron Pullen saw Brown in woods around Mary Edith and Sheffield roads in St. Martin and chased him down.
Detectives recovered part of the stolen money.
Biloxi police began their scramble Friday when Whitney Bank on Pass Road reported a robbery at 3:32 p.m. Police said the robber implied he had a weapon and demanded money, then left on foot, heading west.
Biloxi Police Officer M. Wheeler, gripping a black tactical shotgun, scanned a perimeter set up around the bank shortly after the holdup.
“If he’s got a gun and I’ve got a gun,” Wheeler said, “my gun’s going to be bigger.”
Police tape cordoned off the brick façade of the bank on Pass near Big Lake Road. Two officers searched a sprawling pasture west of the bank with a German shepherd. The land, with overgrown underbrush and trees, backs up to Back Bay.
“There’s plenty of hiding places back there,” said Evelyn Dawson, owner of Ya-Ya’s on Pass Road.
Hi, I can’t understand why Mary Hall would do something so stupid..I worked with her for two years .Mary was a loving mother and a wife..It is just so crazy that a person like her would end up robbing 4 banks ???
She evidently robbed one of the 4 banks Amee. These are crazy times down here – have been since 8-29-05. I personally know people that work at the Waveland KFCU branch. Thank God no one was hurt.
sop