Friday, December 24, 2010

TIS THE SEASON FOR MUSHY STORIES (8)

No good deed goes unpunished. Another heartwarming Christmas tale.

On December 15, 70-year-old Sandra Bathke, who was behind on her rent, asked Luke Weimert, 26, if he could give her a ride from her Jamesville, Minnesota home to neighboring Elysian so she could withdraw some money from the bank. Bathke rented an apartment from Weimert’s mother.

Luke, being the good samaritan that he is, gave her a ride to the Elysian State Bank and waited in his car while the kindly old lady made her withdrawal.

As they arrived back at her apartment, they were surrounded by a bevy of cop cars, ordered out of Weimert’s car at gunpoint and spreadeagled face down on the snowy ground, before being hauled off to the can.

It seems as though her bank withdrawal had been far from routine. A bank security camera showed Bathke walking into the bank with a cloth bag shortly before she robbed it. James Hansen, the bank’s vice president, said the bag made a metallic clunk when she placed it on the counter and told the teller, ‘Give me your cash. I have a gun and I know how to use it.’ After Bathke walked out of the bank, Hansen called the police to notify them he was following the robbers.

When searching her purse, the police found $3,700 in cash, a small hammer, some rubber gloves and a complimentary 2011 bank calendar Bathke had picked up in the lobby before she approached the teller.

Immediately upon their arrest, Bathke pleaded with the cops to release Weimert, telling them he had nothing to do with the robbery. They weren’t convinced. And it took an hour of questioning by investigators before Weimert suddenly realized his ride had robbed the bank.

Weimert is still trying to clear his good name.

Merry Christmas. Ho, Ho, Ho.

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