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Bank heist suspect nabbedFeb 26, 2013 (Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A man suspected in bank robberies in Fayette and Daviess counties was arrested Monday at a motel on Morgantown Road. Christopher A. Schenk, 45, address unknown, was arrested about 4:30 p.m. by the Bowling Green Police Department after an officer spotted a brown van at Western Hills Motel, 312 Morgantown Road, that matched descriptions provided by Lexington and Kentucky State police, according to Officer Ronnie Ward, spokesman for city police. "He was arrested for two warrants, one out of Fayette County and one out of Daviess County," Ward said, adding that both warrants stemmed from first-degree robbery charges. "We'd been given a 'be on the look out for' of a couple of vehicles that he could be driving. He was believed to be in Bowling Green." Police had license plate numbers of vehicles that Schenk could be driving, including a red Probe, a Mitsubishi Eclipse and a brown van, Ward said. Several BGPD officers went to Western Hills Motel for backup after a patrol officer spotted the brown van, which had a license plate number matching one connected to Schenk, he said. Schenk was identified as a suspect in a Jan. 28 robbery of U.S. Bank at 2653 Richmond Road in Lexington after police there asked for the public's help, said Sherelle Roberts, spokeswoman at the Lexington Division of Police. In that robbery, a man pointed a semiautomatic pistol at one of the tellers and demanded cash, fleeing after the tellers complied, according to a Lexington Division of Police news release. "We had probable cause to serve a warrant for robbery first-degree," Roberts said, adding that additional charges against Schenk are possible. "We'll definitely look into the possibility if (the suspect) might be responsible for other thefts and robberies," she said. With the recent spate of bank robberies in Bowling Green, one suspect, Steven Paul Harston, 47, was named in a Warren County grand jury indictment alleging two counts of first-degree robbery and two counts of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. He is accused of the June 20 robbery at American Bank & Trust on Fairview Avenue and a Jan. 3 robbery at First Security Bank on Chestnut Street. Two of the three bank robberies reported in Bowling Green this year remain unsolved. It's possible that one suspect is linked to several bank robberies around the state, Ward said. "(Schenk) very well may be a suspect all throughout the state," he said, adding that it's too soon to tell. Schenk was held at Warren County Regional Jail in lieu of a $100,000 cash bond for the Daviess County first-degree robbery charge and a $10,000 cash bond for the Fayette County first-degree robbery charge. He was taken to Daviess County today, according to a Warren County jail employee. ___ (c)2013 the Daily News (Bowling Green, Ky.) Visit the Daily News (Bowling Green, Ky.) at www.bgdailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |