Crystal Sherr (Photo courtesy of Baxter County Sheriff’s Office)
A 51-year-old Calico Rock woman, Crystal Sherr, has been arrested after she allegedly robbed the First Security Bank branch inside the Mountain Home Walmart Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured in the incident in which Sherr told tellers she had a bomb.
According to information from Mountain Home Police Criminal Investigator Lieutenant Mike Day, Sherr had been in the store for about one hour before she went to the bank, handing a teller a note she had written on a piece of paper she found in the store.
Sherr allegedly said in the note she needed $1,000 and told the teller she had a bomb in her purse. She also said there was someone in the store watching her and to not call the police until she was out of the parking lot.
Mountain Home police were able to quickly review the surveillance video from both First Security and Walmart and were able to get a BOLO (be on the lookout) issued for her vehicle. She was found a short time later at a business in Calico Rock by an Arkansas State Police trooper and arrested3 without incident.
Lieutenant Day says it was quick work by patrolman Jared Medina who helped identify Sherr as the suspect. Medina had a previous encounter with Sherr last month when she was fired from her job in Mountain Home for stealing money from the business. She was given a misdemeanor citation and had agreed to pay the money back. Medina was able to review body cam footage from the encounter to positively identify her as the person involved in the robbery Tuesday.
Day says during questioning, Sherr admitted to the bank heist, saying she needed the money but “would never hurt anybody.”
Day says Sherr had her son waiting in the car who was unaware of what had happened inside the store. She allegedly told her son a friend had wired some money and gave him some cash he needed to help with moving expenses, they then drove through a fast food restaurant in Mountain Home and then headed to Calico Rock.
Sherr is charged with aggravated robbery, a Class Y felony, the most serious crime in Arkansas not punishable by the death penalty, and a felony count of theft of property. Her bond is set at $250,000.
Law enforcement recovered $784 of the $1,000 that was taken in the robbery.
Day says Sherr is also a suspect in an attempted bank robbery last week in another part of the state. In that incident, the female went to a drive-thru at a bank and gave the teller a note asking for money, but when the teller walked away, she drove off.
Day praised the efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies in the quick apprehension of Sherr. He said the 911 call from the bank came in at 1:28 and she was in custody only 90 minutes later.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI