Two ski shop workers who robbed a Vail bank of more than $129,000 got caught up in the high-dollar lifestyle of the ski resort before their clumsy holdup and quick arrest, investigators said today.
Luke Carroll, 19, and Anthony Prince, 20, were sentenced to at least 4 1/2 years in prison for the March heist at WestStar Bank. Carroll is Australian and Prince is a New Zealander with permanent Australian residency.
Citing numerous requests from the Australian media for details, FBI agents and Vail police called a news conference to discuss the holdup, four months after the pair pleaded guilty.
"I think the lifestyle kind of got a hold of them and they wanted to be part of that lifestyle," FBI Special Agent Craig Byrkit said.
But he conceded authorities may never know if that's the real reason for the robbery.
One of the men was in debt, Byrkit said. He did not identify which one.
Vail Police Detective Ryan Millbern said the pair, dubbed "Dumb and Dumber" by the Australian media, are also suspected of trying to make a purchase with a credit card a customer accidentally left in the shop where they worked.
He said they were never charged because police decided to focus on the bank robbery instead.
Millbern recounted some of the robbers' missteps that led to their arrest a day after the robbery, including holding up a bank where they did business and where tellers recognized their accents. [SIW: Other reports indicated that the men were wearing IDs from their ski shop, and reportedly used the same air-powered gun (sources say either a pellet gun or a paintball gun) that they had used in a previous vandalism charge that was investigated by police.]
They also tried to buy jewelry with $5 bills and put at least $18,000 in cash in the mail, authorities said Tuesday. Postal officials in San Francisco intercepted $6,000 of it and the rest was recovered after it was delivered to their homes in Australia, they said.
(c) 2005 Associated Press
