By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
Authorities charged two Winston-Salem men with robbing First Bank in Salisbury on Tuesday minutes after one man handed a note demanding money to a bank teller.
Salisbury Police Department officers arrested Travis Arnold, 30, of 161 Highland Ave., Winston-Salem, and Joshua Thompson, 20, of 1962 Bloomfield Drive, Winston-Salem, and charged them with common law robbery.
The robbery took place shortly after 10 a.m. A man wearing a hoodie and dark sunglasses walked into the bank branch at 1525 S. Jake Alexander Blvd. and passed a note to a teller, Chief Deputy Steve Whitley said.
The robber, who did not display a weapon, took money and walked out of the bank and across the parking lot. Witnesses reported seeing him get into a white, mid-sized sport utility vehicle at Old Concord Road and Chantilly Lane.
As Officer Alan Waller was responding to the robbery call, he observed a vehicle fitting that description exiting Reamer Circle onto Old Concord Road. He turned around and stopped the vehicle on Arlington Street just off Old Concord Road, police said.
Officers found money on one of the suspects, police said, and recovered clothes worn during the robbery from a trash can on Reamer Circle.
The First Bank branch on Jake Alexander Boulevard has been robbed several times, most recently in January. It was also robbed in September 2001 and May 2002.
In March 2006, two women attempted to rob the bank but got scared and left. In February 2006, a man who robbed a Kannapolis bank cased First Bank intending to rob it also, authorities said.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and the N.C. Highway Patrol assisted in apprehending the suspects.
Contact Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253 or spotts@salisburypost.com.