Two men are in custody and $50,000 has been recovered after a bank robbery in Depoe Bay, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said.
Franco Armando Mereno Jr., 37, of Portland, and Jonathan F. Schwentner, 43, of Canby, are being held on robbery, aggravated theft and kidnapping charges, officials said.
Two armed men walked into a Columbia Bank in the small Oregon coast city shortly before noon on Thursday, demanded access to the vault and made off with some $50,000, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The robbers jumped into a red sedan and raced away on Highway 101, officials said. The suspects later set the car on fire in a vacant lot in Depoe Bay.
A witness saw the men get into a gray Toyota and drive off, and about an hour later, police spotted a parked, empty gray Toyota Camry near Don Davis Park in Newport, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. Officers later found clothing “that matched the clothing worn by the suspects in the bank” stuffed into a public trash can in the area.
Police in Newport separately spotted two men matching the descriptions of the robbers – one at the intersection of Highway 101 and Highway 20, and the other at Nye Beach – and took them into custody, the sheriff’s office said. Officers also found a large backpack at Nye Beach that matched the description of a backpack the robbers used in the bank.
A search of the backpack and the Toyota turned up more than $50,000 in cash and two weapons, officials said.
Schwentner was convicted of second-degree escape in Union County in 2002 following allegations that he stole a car, drove into a pawn shop, burglarized the shop and then fled from police, according to court records. A year later he was convicted of second-degree burglary in Marion County.
Mereno does not have a criminal record in Oregon.
The Lincoln County Major Crime Team, with the help of the Oregon State Police and local police departments, continue to investigate the bank robbery.
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