The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on May 23, 1924:
BANDITS ROB ASHCREEK STATE BANK
Secure $700.00 in Currency and Few Liberty Bonds in Daring Day-Light Hold Up
GEO. M. LaDUE FORCED INTO BANK’S VAULT
Robbers Consist of Four Men Who Come and Disappear in New Buick Automobile
About $700 in currency and several Liberty bonds were obtained in a daring day-light robbery of the Ashcreek State bank, staged Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Geo. M. LaDue, who happened to be in charge of the bank at the time, was compelled at the point of a leveled gun to stand idly by while the money was being collected, and then enter the vault and have its doors closed upon him.
There were four men in the party of robbers, and they traveled in a brand new Buick six touring car, but only two of the men participated in the holdup, the other two remaining in the waiting automobile. Mr. LaDue was able to open the vault door within two or three minutes after the robbers had left the bank. He at once spread an alarm, which resulted in reports being phoned to all surrounding towns, but up to yesterday noon, there had been no developments that might lead to the apprehension of the culprits.
The robbers were first noticed in Ashcreek at about 11 o’clock Wednesday morning, and it is now thought that they planned to rob the bank during the noon hour but were prevented from doing so owing to the presence of a number of Northern States Power Co. linemen. The latter workmen assembled near the bank and spent the noon hour pitching horseshoes, and this is believed to have caused the robbers to postpone their plans.
The two men who took the active parts in the robbery were dressed in overalls, one in blue and the other in khaki, and their general appearance led those who observed them to suppose that they were electric or phone linemen. The fact that they were seen sizing up wire connections on posts gave added weight to this theory.
Their general appearance, however, tended to create suspicion, and while they were near the Lundy Hill home on the Kitterman farm, a block or so south of the bank, Mr. Hill, who is a constable, expressed doubt about their business there, and he asked Mrs. Hill to endeavor to get the number of the license plate. But when she tried to do so, she found that she could not distinguish anything on the plate, but the letters, S. D., the numerical figures being so thickly covered with dust that it is thought that the robbers must have smeared grease over them in order to collect dust and hide the numbers.
Next week: What occurred after two o'clock left bank employees in shock.