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Wednesday, July 23, 2003

By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Jared B. LaChance made it awfully easy for police and the FBI.

According to a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court, he handed a bank teller a piece of paper with his name, address and phone number on it.

Then he handed her another piece of paper saying he was robbing the bank.

Now LaChance, 22, is under indictment and being held in the Allegheny County Jail.

In an affidavit, FBI Agent Phil Akins said LaChance showed up at the Great American Federal Savings & Loan in Munhall at 2:10 p.m. June 27 and handed the teller what she thought was a check reorder request.

She put it on the counter behind her.

Akins said when she turned around, LaChance handed her an envelope and a note that said, "No exploding ink. Put the money in the envelope. Don't look up. Hurry up!"

He got away with $4,046.

But not for long.

The original piece of paper he handed the teller included his name, his phone number and his address at 300 Park Ave., Apartment 34, West Mifflin. Tellers described him, too, and later picked him out of a photo lineup.

LaChance has been arrested three times since 1999 in White Oak and Wilkins. He was charged in White Oak in 1999 with theft and carrying a gun without a license, and again in White Oak in March 2000 with robbery, fleeing and eluding. Wilkins police also arrested him in January 2000, but it's not clear on what charge.

Based on information from the most recent robbery, a magistrate issued an arrest warrant for LaChance earlier this month.

State police arrested him in Carlisle on July 13. After his initial court appearance in Harrisburg, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh handed up an indictment Thursday.