THE SCRANTON JOB

By JARED STRONG and ANDREW McGINN   |   a.mcginn@beeherald.com

Man accused of stealing more than $10K from Scranton bank at gunpoint; two arrests made

Wailes faces felony charges of robbery and theft, which are punishable by up to 25 and 10 years in prison, respectively, if convicted.

Wailes’ capture was followed Wednesday by a second arrest in connection to the robbery.

Tyler Mattingly, 26, of Carroll, was arrested for aiding and abetting robbery (first degree) and theft (first degree), according to a press release from Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams.

The theft complaint, which was filed Monday in district court, indicates the amount of money taken was greater than $10,000, but it doesn’t list a specific amount.

“We are hopeful that they have found the correct suspect and that our employees can rest easy,” said John Rigler III, president of Peoples Bank. “They’re definitely shaken up. They’re definitely nervous. They really enjoy their jobs and the community, but it does have them looking over their shoulder, whereas they haven’t had to do that before.”

Rigler declined to provide more details of the robbery because of the ongoing criminal investigation, but he said the bank’s video surveillance system was upgraded last year, and “we’re thankful we did so.” 

Cameras captured a man dressed in all black with a zebra-print gaiter entering Peoples Bank in Scranton about 10:45 a.m.

He walked inside, demanded money and left, and was armed with what appeared to be a handgun, according to Williams.

No one was injured.

The man, dressed in a black coat and pants, with sunglasses and a black backpack, got into an unidentified vehicle about a block west of the bank and fled, Williams said. The man was inside the bank for only a couple of minutes, Williams said.

Williams said Tuesday he couldn’t yet disclose how investigators connected Wailes to the robbery. In a press release Saturday, Williams said the Greene County Sheriff’s Office was aided in his arrest that morning by the FBI, Gaming Enforcement, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, Carroll Police Department, the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, Lake City Police Department, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, Boone Police Department and the Ames Police Department.

Wailes has been convicted of many felony and misdemeanor charges in the past decade for burglary, theft, eluding and drugs. His most recent stint in prison was for a domestic abuse assault conviction in Guthrie County.

It didn’t take long for news of the armed robbery at Peoples on Feb. 25 to spread, not just around Scranton (pop. 557), but across the county.

“It’s the biggest crowd I’ve seen since the sesquicentennial,” Cail Calder, owner of Scranton-based Bee Mindful, said of the onlookers who began congregating along Main Street on the sunny, spring-like day.

Like Calder, Gene Hicks was fetching his mail from the mailboxes at Main and Irving streets when he learned what happened.

A lifelong Scranton resident who owns a business maintaining rural wells, Hicks reported that a group of guys meeting for coffee at the nearby Maker’s Brew Cafe — a new coffeeshop inside the old grocery store — admittedly had no idea what had taken place just across the street.

Williams and deputies were focusing attention on the Irving Street alley, where the getaway car was supposedly parked.

Hicks said it was unlikely the robbery would go unsolved for long — a prediction that rang true.

“Somebody, somewhere, knows something,” Hicks said.

For most onlookers, though, it was just the sheer shock of it all that will forever make the events of Feb. 25 a part of local lore.

Larry Barr, 83, who has lived around Scranton since he was 10, never thought something like this was possible in Scranton.

“Not ever,” Barr said.

“It’s one of those things,” he added, “that doesn’t need to happen ever again.”

Bank robberies are obviously a rarity in Greene County. According to Williams, the last one occurred more than a decade ago.

Specifically, it occurred on Oct. 17, 2009, when a Des Moines man robbed the Peoples Bank in Rippey at gunpoint, then fled by taking an employee’s car, which was recovered a short time later close to town.

The man was later found guilty in federal court of robbing banks in Rippey, Slater, St. Charles and Oxford all at gunpoint.

More famous was the 1925 robbery of the Farlin Savings Bank, in which a gang of five got inside after hours and made between eight and 10 attempts to blow the vault and safe with dynamite. They were unsuccessful and instead made do with a bag of $500 in silver dollars.

The gang also cut the town’s telephone wires, but managed to overlook the line running to the nearby S.M. Youngblood farm, from which word got to the sheriff.

Two of the men were caught in Farlin following what the Jefferson Bee on Feb. 25, 1925, called a “running gun fight” with law enforcement. A third man was caught taking a freight train from Lohrville to Fort Dodge.

A fourth suspect went home to Sioux City and hanged himself.

While the fifth was never identified, officials suspected a woman of driving the getaway car.

But Bonnie and Clyde they were not.

Neither was the man who robbed Peoples Trust and Savings in Grand Junction at gunpoint in 1955. Driven by unpaid bills, the man drew a small black mustache on his upper lip with a pencil and made his way to Grand Junction with a revolver from his home in Arcadia.

While the man initially made off with $9,263, according to the Jefferson Bee, it wasn’t long before law enforcement caught up.

He turned out to be the 24-year-old son of Arcadia’s mayor.

“I was more scared than they were in the bank,” he later confessed to the Jefferson Bee in a jailhouse interview. “I wanted to turn around and walk out after I got in the bank, but I decided it was too late. Even after I had the money, I wanted to tell the manager I’d forget about it if he would — but I knew I would get the same rap anyway, so I went through with it.”

According to state records, Wailes was released from prison in November, and has since been suspected of multiple crimes.

Wailes is accused of stealing a 2019 Dodge Charger in Stuart on Dec. 5 and later that day fleeing from a Lake City police officer at speeds greater than 120 mph, court records show.

A judge agreed on Jan. 12 to release Wailes from the Sac City jail, where he had been held for about a month for the felony eluding charge in Calhoun County, according to court records.

Wailes allegedly fled another traffic stop on Jan. 30 in Boone County. He again attempted to flee a traffic stop on Feb. 4 in Boone but was apprehended. A judge released him from jail the next day, court records show.

Investigators found dozens of syringes — some of which appeared to contain illicit drugs — in Wailes’ vehicle, according to search warrant documents.