By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The man arrested following yesterday’s bank robbery in Chehalis is a 52-year-old who just arrived in the area a few months ago.
Police recovered $36,000 cash when they arrested Larry G. Bailey, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
The BMX-style bicycle he was riding and wrecked shortly before he was apprehended less than a mile from the bank has been taken into police evidence. As has the pinkish-purple floral print cloth bag he apparently brought with him to put the money in, according to police.
Bailey has a Chehalis adress.
Police swarmed toward Chase Bank yesterday morning after a 10:45 a.m. call that the business on South Market Boulevard near Seventh Street was robbed. A dog track was conducted. Three nearby schools were alerted for lockdown.
Nobody at the bank was injured, but the man forced an employee to take him into the bank’s vault, police said.
Chehalis Police Department spokesperson Linda Bailey, no relation to the suspect, said he implied he had a gun, but no gun has been located.
The suspect was discovered within the hour, traveling on a bicycle crossing the West Street bridge overpass.
The floral bag with the money was inside a backpack, Bailey said. Also discovered among his belongings was a suspected methamphetamine pipe, she said.
Bailey said she believes the suspect is the same Larry G. Bailey who was arrested [1] in November after a campfire destroyed his tent and all his belongings where he was living next to Interstate 5 at LaBree Road. That 52-year-old was cited for reckless burning.
Bailey was booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree robbery, for first-degree kidnapping and a drug violation, according to police. The kidnapping allegation comes from taking the bank employee into the vault, police said.
He is scheduled to go before a Lewis County Superior Court judge this afternoon.
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For background, read “Chehalis Chase bank robbed, one in custody after fleeing on bicycle” from Monday January 26, 2015 at 1:10 p.m., here [2]