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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 13, 2006 Medford Police officer D.J. Graham is led by tracking dog Tiko in a hunt for a bank robbery suspect in downtown Medford Thursday. The man robbed PremierWest on East Main Street at about 11:20 a.m. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Police seek bank robbery suspect Surveillance footage at nearby business captures get-away van By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune An armed man with an apparent fake mustache robbed a downtown bank midday Thursday in Medford’s first bank robbery of the new year. Now investigators hope a surveillance camera outside a strip club will help yield the town’s first bank robbery arrest of 2006. A surveillance camera inside the PremierWest branch at 300 E. Main St. captured only footage of the man confronting a teller before fleeing on foot at about 11:20 a.m., police said. But cameras outside The Office Gentlemen’s Club on nearby Riverside Avenue captured video of the robber driving off in a late-model Dodge conversion van, police said. The van, which the robber parked in front of a club camera, sports a light-colored top half with a dark-colored bottom and a decal-like strip in the middle. Advertisement It also has an unusual, asymmetrical rectangle on the rear window, police said. If officers can find the van, they believe they will find the robber. "It should stand out in a crowd," Medford police Lt. Mike Moran said. "It would be fantastic if we could solve this faster because of that video at The Office." No one was injured in the robbery, which bank officials said is the first at that building since it opened as a Western Bank branch 19 years ago, Moran said. Wearing a red stocking cap, glasses and an apparently fake black mustache, the man was the only customer in the bank when he approached a female teller and declared he was robbing the bank, Moran said. The man then opened a small bluish-green bag to reveal a small silver revolver. "He said to the teller, ‘It’s real,’ " Moran said. "He was very calm and didn’t appear to be in any hurry," Moran said. The teller put an undisclosed amount of cash in the bag, and the robber fled out the bank’s rear door and headed east on foot before disappearing from view, police said. Within two minutes, several Medford police officers converged on the bank in a downtown area filled with Rogue Community College students. Officers and detectives combed the area but could not locate anyone matching the robber’s description. Tiko, a German shepherd tracking dog, and his handler, officer D.J. Graham, also inspected the parking lot and swept through the immediate area as well, but Moran said the asphalt lot and rainy conditions made catching the robber’s scent unlikely. Detectives interviewed bank employees while PremierWest officials catered lunch for them inside the closed bank as police assembled what little information they had on the suspect. A bank surveillance camera showed the robber was wearing glasses and a coat with red sleeves and a dark-colored bottom, Moran said. Tellers described the robber as about 6 feet tall and weighing about 165 pounds. But the detectives’ best break came about an hour later after police Detective Sue Campbell asked The Office employees if she could review the business’ surveillance video. "It’s a shot in the dark," Moran said outside the bank while Campbell was at the club. "But that’s been a new thing we look for in cases like this — what do cameras at other businesses pick up." Minutes later, Campbell returned with the surveillance tape. It showed a man wearing the same clothes as the robber parking the conversion van on Riverside Avenue just moments before the robbery, Moran said. He got out of the van and walked toward the bank, returning in a few minutes and driving away, Moran said. "The detective who saw it said there was no doubt it was him," Moran said. It was unclear on the video whether he was wearing the mustache, and no license plates were readable, Moran said. The club has used multiple surveillance cameras inside and outside the business for about eight years, said Bill O’Connor, the club’s attorney. The cameras provide "corporate security" and help ensure compliance with city codes that require businesses to keep patrons from loitering, O’Connor said. O’Connor said the club has "a standing relationship" with local, state and even federal law-enforcement officers who can view the club’s external videotapes if they request them. "We’ve done that for years and years," O’Connor said. "If you’re a responsible business, you do that." Moran said the club’s cameras have helped in several previous cases, including instances that disproved people claiming excessive use of force in arrests by Medford police officers. "This is probably the best evidence and the biggest case" involving The Office’s cameras, Moran said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Police seek bank robbery suspect ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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