Former Casey’s in Mount Ayr
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
Barb (Kennedy) Supinger asked me if I had information on the armed robbery that took place at Casey’s General Store on January 18, 1977. I remembered reading about it a couple of years ago as I often read old newspapers and thought I would revisit that fateful evening. Oh, yes, Barb was the cashier that night.
The Mount Ayr Record-News says two 14-year-old boys entered the convenience store, each equipped with 9 mm. pistols, and walked out with $287 in cash and a few checks. The boys were from Ottumwa and needed money to hitchhike across the U. S. A.
Vic Thompson, of the Mount Ayr Hotel, tipped off authorities and the boys were arrested just hours after the heist. The cash was recovered and the checks were found in the bathroom of the DanDee Cafe at 110 W. Madison.
I looked through several weeks of newspapers for a follow up story but didn’t find one. Because of their age, I can’t image the state releasing any information.
I thought of another heist I have failed to cover previously, and that is the bank at Kellerton being burglarized on March 1, 1952. Security State Bank of Mount Ayr bought the Kellerton State Bank in 1931 and operated a branch in Kellerton for at least two decades.
In February 1951, Security State Bank leased the north part of the Merritt building for its office. In August 1951, Albert Allen bought the former bank building from a Mr. Hynden. And on March first 1952, the safe was blown in the Security State Bank.
Liquid explosives were used to blow the safe and much damage was done to the building but no one heard anything. Entrance was gained by prying open a window in the rear of the building where sacks of feed were stored (I’m just relaying what the Record-News said). Cashier Ray Jayne, of Leon, discovered the crime the next morning. The thieves escaped with $2,871 in cash and, as far as I know, were never caught. The only news I found after the burglary was Security State Bank being compensated for the loss by the National Surety Corporation one week later. That was fast!
The Tingley Savings State Bank was robbed in August 1970 and First State Bank in Diagonal was hit in June 1986. I have already written about the Diagonal job so in the near future I’ll cover the Tingley robbery.