Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Western District of Missouri

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, February 25, 2016

KC Man, Woman Charged with Bank Robbery

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., couple were charged in federal court today for robbing the U.S. Bank inside the Price Chopper grocery store on 103rd Street in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday afternoon.

Austin D. Bales, 23, and Sherry L. Ridout, 22, both of Kansas City-North, were charged with bank robbery in a federal criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s criminal complaint, Ridout approached a bank teller at U.S. Bank, 1030 W. 103rd St., at approximately 3:50 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Ridout, talking on her cell phone, reached into her left jacket pocket and produced a note, which she placed on the teller counter. Ridout allegedly told the teller to give her all of the money from the top drawer. The note, according to the affidavit, said something along the lines of: “We have the bank surrounded, won’t hesitate to come back there, only clean bills, keep your hands visible, money is replaceable, Lifes aren’t.”

The teller gave Ridout $1,500, the affidavit says.

After bank surveillance photos of Ridout were broadcast by local media, the affidavit says, investigators received several phone calls that identified her as the robber and identified Bales as her boyfriend.

On Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, police officers conducted a traffic stop near the Walmart at 5261 N.E. Antioch Rd., Kansas City, Mo., of a van that matched the description of a vehicle identified in connection to the bank robbery. A witness had told investigators she saw Ridout being dropped off and later picked up by a van that fled the area after the robbery. When police officers stopped the van yesterday, it was being driven by Bales’s father with Bales and Ridout in the back seat.

Law enforcement officers searched the residence of Bales’s father, where Bales and Ridout were living in the basement, and found a Walmart bag containing apparent shredded U.S. currency and a Sucrets box containing a white substance that field tested positive for amphetamine.

Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Marquez. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the FBI.