In the big buzz in the small community of Cokato is about a bank burglary. It wasn't bold or sophisticated. In fact, the simplicity of the heist is what folks are buzzing about.
"This is one of those deals where it seems like, walking by a bank, you (the suspect) say 'hey, they've got money in there. I wonder if I can get any out of there,'" remarked Lt. Todd Hoffman, criminal investigator with the Wright Co. Sheriff's Department.
Investigators say 18-year-old Jeremy Fuller pried open a back door at the State Bank of Cokato and spent 45 minutes gathering cash and coin left out inside the bank. They say Fuller got away with more than $15,000.
Deputies say Fuller could be seen on bank surveillance tapes wheeling garbage cans full of money to the bank's back door. They allege Fuller picked up the phone and called his friend, 42-year-old Kelly Louise Bell.
"She was called after the fact, from Jeremy Fuller, stating he had burglarized the bank and he needed help carrying all the change back home because it was too heavy," Hoffman reported.
The pair brought the money back to Bell's apartment, which is about 300 yards from the bank, on the same street. Police found Bell and Fuller and a good chunk of the cash in that Cokato Apartment Tuesday while executing a search warrant. Investigators also say they seized recently purchased clothes and electronics.
The cash and coins were hidden in two garbage cans. Covering one pile of coins, dumped into the bottome half of a plastic trash can, was a Dassel Cokato Enterprise Dispatch newspaper. Right there on the front page of the paper was a bank photograph and the caption "Theft Reported at State Bank Saturday."
"It was just a matter of time before he would have been caught, especially if he was telling his friends about it," Hoffman said.
Investigators say they got a good shot of Fuller's face on the surveillance cameras. Police in nearby Buffalo recognized the face from a residential burglary case they'd worked on.
Fuller is charged with Second Degree Burglary, Bell's been charged with Receiving Stolen Property and Aiding an Offender.
(Copyright 2007 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
