Bandit strikes three days after an earlier robbery

By TOM HENDERSON
Gazette-Times reporter

A man robbed Washington Federal Savings at 1111 N.W. Ninth St. at 3:30 p.m. Thursday — the second bank robbery on the street in three days.

The previous bank robbery was just before 5 p.m. Tuesday and less than a mile away at Key Bank, 1817 N.W. Ninth St.

In Thursday’s bank robbery, a white male entered the bank, showed a note to a teller and demanded money. After leaving the bank, he got on a bicycle and headed southeast with an undisclosed amount of cash. He is described as being in his 50s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 7 inches tall with a medium build and a large nose.

Witnesses said the suspect might also have been wearing a long-haired gray wig, but that had not been confirmed by investigators.

Lt. Dave Henslee, the public information officer for the Corvallis Police Department, said the suspect was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with pink lettering across the chest, blue jeans, black ski gloves and a fanny pack. He also was wearing aviator-style sunglasses tinted orange.

Henslee said the suspect didn’t show a weapon or imply that he had one.

While looking for this latest bank robber, police continue to look for a suspect in Tuesday’s heist at Key Bank. That suspect is described as a white woman, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall with a medium-to-heavy build. She fled the scene on foot, wearing a dark cap with a light bill and dark blue zip-up coat with a red undershirt.

She also didn’t display a weapon in the robbery. There is also no evidence that either robber had an accomplice.

Henslee said there doesn’t seem to be a connection between the two robberies. “It’s common for crime to go up during times of economic hardship,” he said. “That could be a possibility here.” Not that it matters, he said. “Crime is crime, and we respond to it.”

This is the second time Washington Federal Savings has been robbed this year. Jack David Baird was sentenced in September to 10 years in prison after admitting he robbed the bank Jan. 10. He also admitted robbing Washington Mutual Bank at 2055 N.W. Circle Blvd. on Dec. 28, 2007.

Anyone with information about this week’s robberies can call Detective Shaun Houck at the Corvallis Police Department at 766-6924.