Hopkins basketball star implicated in bank heist

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: August 19, 2008 - 10:36 PM

A former Hopkins High School basketball player who earned a scholarship to Cal Poly has been implicated in a bank robbery Saturday in Wisconsin.

Police arrested Anthony Diloreto at his Minnetonka home Saturday, several hours after he allegedly served as the driver of a would-be getaway car in connection with a robbery of the Bremer Bank in Danbury, Wis., Burnett County Sheriff Dean Roland said Tuesday.

Diloreto, 18, is in the Hennepin County jail awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, where he is likely to face charges of being a party to armed robbery, Roland said. A 16-year-old boy suspected of being the actual robber is being held in a juvenile facility in Eau Claire, Wis.

According to Roland, Diloreto and the 16-year-old had been at a gas station before the robbery and left without paying for gas. Diloreto then dropped off the 16-year-old and went alone to the Bremer Bank and inquired about setting up a student account.

When he left the bank, the 16-year-old walked in with a sawed-off pump shotgun and robbed it, Roland said.

Roland said he suspects Diloreto left the scene when he heard sirens and saw police cars in the area. Police and an ambulance were responding to an accident involving an all-terrain vehicle across the street from the bank.

Admitted to robbery

Police found the 16-year-old boy about 45 minutes later walking along a highway near Danbury. He admitted to robbing the bank and to being in the car that was involved in the drive-off at the gas station.

Diloreto was the starting center and averaged eight points per game for Hopkins, the top-ranked team in Class 5A for much of the season.

After he signed with the college in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Cal Poly coach Kevin Bromley called him "a seven-footer with a great deal of potential."

Said Hopkins coach Ken Novak Jr.: "We are all mystified by this whole thing. There's got to be some kind of story inside the story."

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768 Staff writer John Millea contributed to this report.