UPDATED 4:25 p.m. with FBI information

 

The FBI announced this afternoon that ATM Solutions is offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information in Monday's robbery at its office in the Grand Center area.

Special Agent Dan Netemeyer disputed a report that $11 million was taken, but would not provide a different number, or say whether it was high or low. The $11 million figure came from a source inside the St. Louis police.

Netemeyer said the U.S. attorney's office will decide later whether to file charges in the robbery against a man held by city police who discovered a large sum -- preliminarily estimated at $250,000 -- in his car trunk after a crash Tuesday.

 

UPDATED 2:44 p.m. with federal charge

A 36-year-old St. Louis man who was driving a "vehicle of interest" in Monday's $11 million cash heist and was arrested with a pistol and a large amount of cash was charged in federal court Wednesday with a firearm crime.

John Wesley Jones, 36, appeared in federal court in St. Louis Wednesday afternoon after being arrested on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to charging documents, Jones was driving a dark-colored Dodge Charger when he was spotted by police Tuesday. The Charger is a "vehicle of interest" in the investigation of the robbery of ATM Solutions Inc. in midtown.

The Charger sped away from police and was involved in an accident at Compton and Olive. Jones abandoned the car at Cardinal and Olice and was caught by police after a foot chase, documents show.

Police found a loaded semi-automatic pistol and cash in the car, documents show. Police sources say that there was $250,000 or more there.

Jones spoke to officers and "made admissions" that the gun was his and that he had it "while transporting a large quantity of money," wrote St. Louis police Det. Roger Murphey in an affidavit supporting the charge against Jones.

Jones is prohibited from possessing a firearm as he is a convicted felon.

Jones pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon, escape or attempt escape from arrest and marijuana possession in 2004 and was sentenced to seven years in prison. He had already spent roughly two years in jail.

He was released on parole on Oct. 16, 2007, and completed his parole two weeks before the heist - on July 19.

Reached at her Jennings home, Jones' mother, Alice Jackson, was unaware of the charges.

"I don't know anything about this. All this is coming as a shock to me."

County records indicate that a Dodge Charger is registered to a Tameka Jones who lives at Jones' address.

Previous version of story:

BY CHRISTINE BYERS and TIM O'NEIL 

ST. LOUIS  • A trunkful of money found after an auto crash Tuesday morning appeared to be a major break for investigators one day after what was apparently the biggest cash heist ever in the St. Louis region.

Officials believe the recovered currency — estimated by a police source at $250,000 — was part of approximately $11 million reported taken in a daring holdup from the vault of an ATM service company in the Grand Center area.

But St. Louis police and the FBI appeared to be less fortunate after surrounding what they suspected to be a robbers' lair in the 4000 block of Page Boulevard about 10 a.m. Agents, using an armored FBI vehicle for cover, fired tear gas into the house and rushed it shortly before 5 p.m. but filed out empty-handed.

"We didn't find anybody inside the residence," said FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu, who said little else about it.

Investigators were looking for the four men who entered ATM Solutions Inc., 3721 Grandel Square, before dawn Monday, tied up two guards and escaped with cash in a company armored van.

A police source said Tuesday the company put the loss at about $11 million, which far eclipses robberies of $847,000 from a Brinks driver in downtown St. Louis in 1992 and of about $1 million from U.S. Armored Car Services in Hazelwood in 1999. Neither of those cases was solved.

Police found the ATM Solutions van about 7:30 a.m. Monday, abandoned in the 4400 block of Evans Avenue, less than two miles west of the robbery scene.

Tuesday's events commenced on that same block, where officers had returned for follow-up canvassing. At 8:45 a.m., they spotted a Dodge Charger they were looking for in the case. Police said the car sped away and was involved in a collision at Olive Street and Compton Avenue.

The driver tried to flee but was arrested quickly. A police source said officers found what they initially guessed was about $250,000 in cash in the trunk of the Charger. They also found a gun, a black duffel bag and a suitcase.

Police declined to release any details about the driver, or why they wanted the Charger.

For reasons not explained, the investigation quickly shifted to a two-story single-family home on Page, a few doors east of North Sarah Street. Police surrounded the house, closed off the block and shut off power to the area to help rout the occupants.

They handed the case to the FBI, which showed up about 1 p.m. with a military-style armored vehicle, a helmeted rifleman poking out of its top hatch.

As agents used bullhorns to urge anyone inside to surrender, many neighbors stayed inside their fast-warming homes. John Bailey, who lives about five doors east, said he lost his power and air conditioning about 10 a.m. He stayed inside, opening his windows to seek breezes and listen to the slow-moving drama outside.

"It was pretty scary for a while, and it was extremely hot," said Bailey. "I could hear the loudspeakers and the tear gas, or whatever it was. It sounded like cannon went off."

Agents approached the house in 102-degree heat, smashed windows and then withdrew. Shortly before 5 p.m., they fired more tear gas and sent a robot toward the house. About 20 agents entered the home. More booms — presumably from distraction grenades known as flash-bangs — could be heard inside. Windows shattered onto the side yards.

A few minutes later, agents came back out, and Wu made her brief announcement to reporters.

Agents combed the backyard and used a stepladder to pick through garbage in a trash bin in the alley behind the home.

Bailey's power was restored shortly after 5 p.m. "It feels much better now," he said.

ATM Solutions, based in Cincinnati, services ATM machines in six Midwestern and mid-South states. Calls to the company were not returned Monday and Tuesday.

The crime began at 5 a.m. Monday, when four masked men, dressed in black and armed with pistols and assault rifles, rushed in and overpowered a lone guard. The robbers awaited the arrival of a second guard a half-hour later then made both of them use security codes to open the vault. It takes two to do that.

The robbers then tied and bound the guards, took their pistols and loaded money into the company van in which they fled. A supervisor arrived at 6 a.m. and freed the two guards, who were not injured.

All of the known locations in the case are near the center of the city. The house on Page is four blocks east of where the van was abandoned on Evans, and less than a mile northwest of ATM Solutions.

Kim Bell, Denise Hollinshed, Robert Patrick and Greg Jonsson, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.