PRAIRIE GROVE -- Prairie Grove police have arrested a 17-year-old boy from the Lincoln area for robbing the Bank of Fayetteville branch on Hindman Drive by using one of the drive-thru lanes, according to Capt. Jeff O'Brien.
O'Brien said the teenager is charged in connection with aggravated robbery and was taken to Washington County Juvenile Detention Center.
The suspect approached the bank's drive-thru at 8:19 a.m. Aug. 19, claimed to have a bomb and demanded an unspecified amount of money. The bank turned over "an unspecified amount of money," O'Brien said but declined to give the exact amount.
O'Brien said police were able to make an arrest because of "two strokes of luck."
When the 911 call came in, a Prairie Grove police officer was only about two blocks away from the bank and was on site within seconds. The suspect was gone but the officer asked construction workers nearby if they had seen anyone running away from the bank. The workers said they saw someone take off on a motorcycle.
Police determined the suspect was probably on Stonewall Road. The "second bit of luck," O'Brien said, was that an officer with Arkansas Game and Fish was driving on Stonewall Road, received the bulletin and saw a motorcycle coming toward him at a high rate of speed.
The officer turned around and gave chase, O'Brien said. Other law enforcement officers also became involved in the chase.
The suspect was stopped on Wedington Blacktop Road, and the money from the bank was recovered from a hidden section in the motorcycle, O'Brien said.
In addition to the money, O'Brien said the police department also has surveillance video from the bank.