Bank robbery plot goes nowhere after would-be accomplice talks

By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune

Last update: July 7, 2009 - 11:38 PM

A 34-year-old Brooklyn Center man has been charged with attempting to rob a bank in Maple Grove last week in a plot that was foiled after his childhood friend and would-be getaway driver turned informant.

Larry L. Reeves was charged Monday in federal court in St. Paul with the attempted holdup Thursday of the Wells Fargo Bank at 6225 Sycamore Lane N.

According to the charges, the FBI and Minneapolis police uncovered the plot through a childhood friend of Reeves, who said Reeves wanted him to be the getaway driver. The two met, with the friend wired by authorities, and planned how they would hold up the bank.

FBI agents and Maple Grove police officers, including an FBI SWAT team, were staged at the bank. Reeves and the informant arrived in a vehicle at a parking lot next to the bank. Reeves was taken into custody without incident.

A search of the vehicle turned up a note demanding money, a black wig, black sunglasses, gloves, pepper spray and a device "made to look like a bomb," according to the charges.