15 YEARS LATER, BANK ROBBER TURNS UP AGAIN

KANSAS CITY, KAN. - Dale Robertson, 54, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of bank robbery.

In his plea, Robertson admitted that on June 6, 2007, he robbed the First Kansas Bank and Trust Company, 405 E. Nelson, in Edgerton, Kan.

Fifteen years ago, Robertson was convicted of a similar crime. In 1992, he received a 107-month sentence for robbing the Bank of Wellsville in Wellsville, Kan..

"The president of the Wellsville bank remembered Mr. Robertson from the robbery 15 years ago," said U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren. "He helped investigators in the Edgerton robbery by identifying Mr. Robertson from bank surveillance photos."

According to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in the case, less than half an hour after the Edgerton robbery, investigators from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office met with investigators from the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to look at a series of color photographs. The photos were taken by the surveillance system in the Wellsville bank about an hour before the robbery at the Edgerton bank. Bank employees had noted the man in the photos was acting suspiciously before he left the Wellsville bank without incident.

The president of the Wellsville bank, who Robertson had robbed at gunpoint 15 years earlier, identified the man in the photos as Robertson. A bank clerk at the Edgerton bank identified the man in the photos from Wellsville as the same man who robbed her at gunpoint in Edgerton.

Sentencing is set for Jan. 28, 2008. He faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in federal prison.

Melgren commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tris Hunt for their work on the case.

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