Published: August 14, 2009 09:36 am      

Andover bank robbed

ANDOVER — A Bettendorf man is in the Clinton County Jail today, accused of robbing the Andover Clinton National Bank branch.

Brett Thomas Ashley, 25, has been charged with second-degree robbery, a class C felony, which carries a possible 10-year prison sentence and a fine between $1,000 and $10,000. He is being held in the Clinton County Jail on $10,000 cash or surety bond.

Ashley was arrested around 9:40 p.m. Thursday, a little more than six hours after deputies from the Clinton County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a robbery at the bank, located at 4330 140th St., Andover. Clinton County Sheriff Rick Lincoln said bank employees and a witness provided a description of the robbery suspect, a white male in his mid-20s with dark hair. A witness stated that the suspect ran south from the bank on foot, changed clothes in a roadside ditch and then fled into a cornfield.

Law enforcement officers from several agencies set up a perimeter around the cornfield and used three police K-9s to track the suspect. An aircraft from the Iowa State Patrol circled the field in a search pattern. After dark, another ISP aircraft equipped with Forward Looking Infrared Radar arrived and joined the search.

At one point, law officers responded to a residence east of Andover on U.S. 67 where a citizen reported someone attempting to gain entry to his home. While the officers were away from the original robbery scene, the bank robbery suspect exited the cornfield south of Andover and flagged down a Camanche police officer who was driving his personal vehicle.

Officers again responded to the location where the suspect was last seen. A sheriff's office K-9 and two deputies entered the cornfield and, with the aid of the ISP aircraft, were able to locate the suspect. He was taken into custody around 9:40 p.m.

The money from the bank has been recovered, Lincoln said.

The Clinton County Sheriff's Office was assisted by the Camanche, DeWitt, and Clinton police departments, the Iowa State Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Clinton County Sheriff's Reserves, Clinton County Emergency Management, the Clinton and Andover Fire Departments and Andover residents.