'Clown' robs Bethlehem Township bank

woman arrested

August 06, 2010|By Pamela Lehman and Frank Warner | OF THE MORNING CALL

A woman in a clown suit walked into a Bethlehem Township bank Friday morning announcing she was armed with a bomb and robbing the bank, police said.

But within minutes of the 10:35 a.m. robbery of the KNBT Bank on 3933 Freemansburg Ave., township police said they arrested a woman as she sat with a clown suit and cash in a parked car at the township Municipal Park Complex.

The woman was not wearing the clown suit, which looked similar to the one worn in the robbery, when she was spotted and taken into custody, police said. She had parked near the tennis courts on 2900 Farmersville Road, about a mile and a half from the bank, police said.

On Friday afternoon, police, fire officials and the Bethlehem Bomb Squad and an agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were at the park complex investigating a suspicious package found in the woman's car. The township Community Center and surrounding roads were cordoned off by yellow police tape and fire engines.

Shortly before 5 p.m., township police reported the suspicious package was not a bomb.

An undetermined amount of cash and several handguns also were found in the woman's car, police said, noting that the handguns were not used or mentioned during the bank robbery.

Police said the woman, whose name was not released, would be arraigned Friday evening.

Jasmine Garcia, a bystander, said she was on her way to visit a friend who lives near the park complex when she saw dozens of police cruisers rush into the parking lot.

"I had no idea what was happening, but it looked like something out of a movie," she said, standing in a yard on Fox Run Road near the Community Center. "You don't see something like that every day."

Garcia, who heard about the bank robbery later, said she was glad police made a quick arrest. "You don't want someone like that running the streets," she said.

It's not unusual for a bank robber to don a mask, but not many wear clown costumes. Last month, an Allentown man who wore a "clown-type" mask in one robbery was sentenced to at least eight years in state prison for stealing nearly $25,000 in two bank holdups and an attempted third robbery.

Police said Brandon Ray Ivory, 25, wore a the clown mask when he robbed the Allentown KNBT. Ivory was arrested soon after he took a wad of cash that contained a GPS tracking device, police said.

The day before Halloween in 2003, a woman wearing a clown suit robbed a bank in Virginia Beach. Police said her face was painted white and she wore a red, yellow and purple wig. Police said she got away in a taxi. It appears the case remains open.

-- Tracy Jordan and Manuel Gamiz Jr. contributed to this story.

Morning Call Articles