This is the City, West Bend, Wisconsin. For 28 years I wore a badge to protect and serve this City. It was July 2005, I was working financial crimes in the detective bureau when we received a call of a robbery in progress at a local bank.
The story you are about to read is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
There are three ways to solve crimes; 1) Physical Evidence, 2) Eye Witness Statements, and 3) Confessions. In this case we had all three and Sam Strawlyer, Scott Strawlyer and Katie Stone were all taken to jail on a multitude of charges. Sam was being held on a $100,000 cash bond, while both Scott and Katie were each being held on a $20,000 cash bond. In all we were able to clear six robberies that these three subjects were involved in.
After a court hearing in which one of Sam’s attorneys, from the law firm of Dewy, Cheatem and How, stated, “It's pretty certain he faces a substantial amount of time in prison and we were hoping to get him out to get his affairs in order.” Sam’s bond amount was later reduced to $20,000.
In this particular case, the Strawlyer brothers had driven in a van and parked three businesses down from the bank. Scott waited in the van as the get away driver as Sam rode the mountain bike down to the bank where he committed the robbery.
When the plot was spoiled and Sam was taken into custody, Scott popped a bunch of pills, panicked and drove away in the van. While he was driving away, this is when he left the message for Katie. Katie had picked Scott up and they both popped some more pills before driving back to the scene where they parked at an adjoining business. The two of them then walked on the sidewalk past all of the police cars, looking for Sam to see if there some way to get him out of there. Seeing none, they returned to the car which is when the good Samaritan had brought them to our attention.