Police rush into Osoyoos’s CIBC branch on the afternoon of May 21 after the bank was robbed. Photo by Paul Everest - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-May 26, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
It took police less than an hour to arrest two men suspected of robbing the Osoyoos CIBC on the afternoon of May 21.
At just after 2 p.m., a man walked into the bank on Main Street and passed a teller a note stating he had a weapon, police said.
No weapon was seen.
The man was handed an undisclosed amount of money and he fled.
No one was injured and police arrived at the scene shortly thereafter.
Cpl. Jason Bayda, a spokesman for the Osoyoos RCMP, said police were able to get a description of the suspect from bank staff and that description was sent out police throughout the region.
Members of the South Okanagan Traffic Services and RCMP from Midway were just setting up road checks near Rock Creek when the suspect was identified as he pulled up to a road check in a vehicle with another man in the passenger seat at just before 2:45 p.m.
Bayda said police allegedly found evidence linking the first suspect to the Osoyoos robbery and both men were arrested.
The man accused of the robbery, Anthony Lloyd Smith, is 52 years old and is a Kamloops resident.
The second suspect is Roland McAnerin, a 32-year-old Kelowna man.
Both have been charged with one count of robbery in relation to the Osoyoos heist.
Smith will next appear in court on June 2 and McAnerin will next appear in court on June 9.
Police said the men are also connected to robberies in Kamloops, Revelstoke, Nanton, Alta., and Innisfail, Alta, and face charges for those heists.
Bayda said that local police are working with police in those communities to share information about all the robberies.
Following the robbery, the bank closed its doors and a sign on the door informed customers the branch would be closed for the rest of the day.
The Osoyoos CIBC was also robbed in a similar way last April.
[email protected]
