Valdese police, Burke deputies collar Forest City bank robber

Burke lawmen say they caught a suspected bank robber hiding under blankets in a truck, ending his five-day long flight from justice.

Deputies and Valdese police arrested Christopher Michael Calhoun, 35, of 534 Pilgrim Road, Ellenboro around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Burke Sheriff Steve Whisenant. Officers were following up on a tip when they arrived at the Family Dollar store at 312 Main St. W. Officers found Calhoun hiding under blankets in the floorboard of a truck parked at the Valdese retailer.

The sheriff said Calhoun had been riding around with several people from Burke County while trying to hide from officers.

Calhoun was charged with two counts of armed robbery, three counts of kidnapping, communicating threats, obtaining property by false pretenses and seven counts of failure to appear.

He is accused of robbing the Fifth Third Bank in Forest City on Friday and Forest City’s RBC Centura Bank in 2010. In both cases, police say he told bank employees he had a bomb and threatened to blow up the buildings if they didn’t hand over cash.

The heist

Chief Jay Jackson of the Forest City Police Department said his officers were called out at 2:15 p.m. Friday to Fifth Third Bank at 300 W. Main St. to a reported bank robbery.

When officers arrived, they found the bank’s employees standing outside the building. They told police that a man had come in with a device he said was a bomb. He demanded money and left once tellers handed him an undisclosed amount of cash.

The device was left in the bank and employees were concerned it was real.

Jackson said the SBI bomb squad came to the scene and, with the assistance of Gaston police and ATF, determined the device was a hoax.

Officers took stills from the surveillance footage and sent it out via Nixle, an online alert system some police stations use to give information to the public.

Jackson said people started sending tips in about the robbery. By the time his officers finished processing the robbery scene, they’d ID’d Calhoun as the robber.

The hunt

Police started looking for him Friday night — one detective was out until 5 a.m. Saturday looking for Calhoun — and officers raided the 35-year-old’s Ellenboro home Saturday.

Two other residents at the home — Dylan Jacob Murray, 20, and Kristin Leigh Lewis, 18 — were recognized from surveillance footage from the bank before the heist. The bank’s security told Jackson the people seemed more concerned with how the financial institution worked than with conspiracy to commit armed robbery. They were jailed under $200,000 secured bonds.

Investigators also found evidence that linked Calhoun and his wife, Amber Nichole Calhoun, 22, with the Nov. 22, 2010 robbery of RBC Centura Bank in Forest City.

Officers found and arrested Amber Calhoun on Sunday. Amber Calhoun confessed to both robberies and implicated her husband, Jackson said. She was charged with conspiracy to commit a robbery with a dangerous weapon and jailed under a $200,000 secured bond.

The only person involved left to find was Christopher Calhoun, said Jackson.

At first police started working with Gaston County deputies and Gastonia police, but Jackson said it quickly became clear that Calhoun went north to Burke.

Calhoun graduated from Freedom High School, the police chief explained, and had family and friends in the area.

Investigative Lt. Rodney Norman said reported sightings of the suspected robber came flooding into the sheriff’s office over the weekend and deputies had spent days looking for him.

Norman and Sgt. Jody Price were following leads on Calhoun’s whereabouts until midnight on Tuesday and scoured much of the county on Wednesday.

Tips sent deputies to a number of homes between Valdese and Icard, including an abandoned trailer off of Scott Road.

Jackson said officers exhausted Calhoun’s possible locations.

“He ran out of places to stay,” he said.

Norman said the last tip came in a 7:24 p.m. Wednesday. A caller told the sheriff’s office that the men he was with was stopped at a store in Valdese. Norman asked road deputies to check it out, and within 15 minutes Calhoun was in custody.

Deputies transported Calhoun to Forest City. He is being held at the Rutherford County jail under a $1,805,000 secured bond. His first appearance was Thursday morning.