Morden man charged in five southern Manitoba bank robberies

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This article was published 12/01/2023 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP have arrested a suspect in a two-month bank robbery spree across rural southern Manitoba.

Insp. Tim Arseneault said five banks were held up using a similar tactic — a note demanding cash which, in some cases, indicated the masked robber had a gun.

“Thousands” of dollars were stolen, he said, but could not provide an exact amount Thursday.

The first robbery occurred in Steinbach on Nov. 10, when a man passed a note demanding cash to a teller at the TD Canada Trust on Main Street just before 5 p.m. The suspect didn’t get any money and fled.

Four days later, in Lowe Farm, the suspect passed a note to a teller, who handed over money.

In Glenboro on Dec. 8, the suspect robbed another bank using a note and made off in a vehicle. On Dec. 23 in Miami, the robber fled a bank with a cash and returned to the same institution on Jan. 3, holding it up a second time.

“We knew these robberies were going to continue until a suspect was identified and arrested,” Arseneault said.

He added that although “no weapon was ever brandished,” the threat of a firearm affected the well-being of the bank tellers and others.

“We’re hopeful that… (the arrest) brings back a sense of safety to all the employees and communities that were affected,” he said, adding bank robberies are rare, and a series of them is even more unusual.

“They’re not as common… as they have been in the past,” he said. “I’ve not personally been involved in a lot of them.”

He said major crime investigators determined the suspect had used several vehicles, and a bystander to the Jan. 3 robbery wrote down a licence plate number.

That vehicle didn’t belong to the suspect, but led police to a person of interest, Arseneault said.

RCMP executed warrants on residences in Morden and the RM of Hanover Monday, where evidence — including cash and clothing — was seized. Mounties did not recover all of the money that been stolen, Arseneault said.

Brett Ashton Krashel, 30, of Morden, was charged with five counts of robbery Monday. He remains in custody.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera