Arresting accents foil `robbers': [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 26 Mar 2005: 9.
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Abstract
Luke Carroll, 19, and Anthony Prince, also 19, a Kiwi with permanent Australian residency, are accused of robbing a bank in Vail, Colorado, of $US130,000 ($168,000).
Working off the tip the robbers could be Australian, police remembered an incident in January in Vail when Carroll and Prince were arrested for shooting out windows with air guns.
"The black ski masks and snowboard boots worn by two alleged bank robbers in Vail this week didn't necessarily make the pair stand out in the ski town," wrote the Denver Post newspaper. "But their Down Under accents may have given them away." Vail police chief Dwight Henninger told the Rocky Mountain News it was their size, their accents and the fact they were together that led to their prompt arrest.
AN Australian man and his New Zealand friend are spending Easter in a US jail accused of robbing a bank at a famous ski resort after their accents gave them away.
Luke Carroll, 19, and Anthony Prince, also 19, a Kiwi with permanent Australian residency, are accused of robbing a bank in Vail, Colorado, of $US130,000 ($168,000).
They were arrested last Tuesday at Denver International Airport with tickets to fly to Mexico.
Prince allegedly had $US7600 in cash in his pants and more cash hidden in his luggage. More money, about $US26,000, was found dumped in a trash can at the airport after the pair apparently became nervous about getting the cash past security.
The two men, who had been living and working in Vail, were visited in jail by an Australian consular official yesterday.
According to an FBI affidavit, staff at the Vail Village WestStar Bank who were held up by two men armed with air guns noticed thepair spoke "with a European or Australian accent".
As well, name tags worn by the masked robbers were similar to name tags used by employees at a sports store in Vail where Carroll and Prince worked.
Working off the tip the robbers could be Australian, police remembered an incident in January in Vail when Carroll and Prince were arrested for shooting out windows with air guns.
Their mug shots from that earlier arrest were then circulated to law enforcement officials throughout Colorado.
When the pair walked through a security checkpoint at the Denver airport, a security official, who recognised their faces from themug shots, asked another official to engage the two in a conversation.
"The accents played a critical role," US Attorney's Office spokesman Jeff Dorschner said.
The US media made great play of the amateur nature of the bank robbery.
"The black ski masks and snowboard boots worn by two alleged bank robbers in Vail this week didn't necessarily make the pair stand out in the ski town," wrote the Denver Post newspaper. "But their Down Under accents may have given them away." Vail police chief Dwight Henninger told the Rocky Mountain News it was their size, their accents and the fact they were together that led to their prompt arrest.
The FBI claimed both men had given "detailed confessions". Each faces up to 25 years in prison.
Their next court appearance will be a bail hearing on Monday in the US district court in Denver.
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