Fewer than 25 minutes after allegedly robbing a Poplar Bluff, Mo., credit union Tuesday afternoon, a Texas man was in custody and the stolen money had been recovered.
Just before 2:30 p.m., the Poplar Bluff Police Department received a call saying a robbery had occurred at the Ozark Federal Credit Union, 221 N. Fifth St., said police Lt. Josh Stewart.
When officers arrived, Stewart said, they began attempting to locate the suspect.
"Their initial description was a dark-complexioned male wearing a baseball cap, gray pullover (shirt), with a black cross-body bag," said Stewart. " ... The last information known was he fled north on Fifth Street on foot."
Stewart said officers also secured the credit union and contacted its employees, which included the branch manager, two tellers and two drive-thru tellers. The only customers, he said, may have been at the ATM or in the drive-thru.
Stewart said it was the branch manager who provided the description.
Although he was in his office and didn't initially get a good look at the man, "he saw him as he was running," Stewart said.
The man, later identified as Daniel Everett Potter, 47, of Crosbyton, Texas, had entered the credit union and presented a note to one of the tellers, Stewart said.
"It says: "Put 20, 10, 50, 5 only one min or I shoot Thank you," Stewart said. "He did put thank you on there" too.
No weapon, Stewart said, was displayed; he "just passed the note."
The teller, who was presented Potter's alleged note, was in training and only had been employed at the credit union for a short time.
She, Stewart said, handed over the money in her cash drawer and was "pretty shaken up."
Officers, he said, also obtained images of the suspect from the credit union's surveillance video.
Those images, Stewart said, were disseminated to all officers.
At about 2:50 p.m., Stewart said, officers saw a male "consistent with the suspect description running east on Selma (toward) Pine.
"Shortly thereafter, that subject was taken into custody and confirmed as the suspect," said Stewart, who indicated Potter was arrested at the intersection of Ninth and Pine streets.
Other than trying to allegedly flee, Stewart said, Potter offered no resistance at the time of his arrest on suspicion of first-degree robbery.
"A search of his person revealed the stolen currency from the bank," Stewart said. The money -- $1,250 -- was found in one of the man's shoes, he said.
"All the money was accounted for," said Stewart.
Potter, Stewart said, had removed some of his clothing at some point as he "no longer was wearing the hat or long-sleeved shirt."
Potter, he said, was wearing the same shoes.
Potter had been described as wearing a cross-body bag; however, he didn't have the bag at the time of his arrest, said Stewart, who indicated the bag may have contained clothing.
"We were looking yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours" and will be checking dumpsters and vacant houses in the area for the items, said Stewart.
The items, he said, are "somewhere between there (the bank) and Nine and Pine," said Stewart.
If any citizen living in the area finds any of the items, Stewart asked that the item not be disturbed and contact be made with police.
Stewart said Potter, who was cooperative with officers after his arrest, was interviewed.
"I think (the motive) was he basically was trying to steal the money to get a place to lay his head," Stewart explained. "He had been staying at the mission."
Stewart said officers were going to contact officials at the United Gospel Rescue Mission today to check their records to see how long Potter had been staying at the mission, where he also has "some property."
Potter, whose criminal history according to Stewart is from "all over the place ... several different states," was booked at the Butler County jail awaiting the filing of formal charges.