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A federal indictment unsealed Thursday in St. Paul confirmed authorities suspect a man arrested in St. Peter Jan. 3 is the bank robber they had dubbed the “Man in Black.”
Mark Edward Wetsch, 49, of Minneapolis made an initial appearance in federal court Thursday for 13 counts of armed bank robbery. One of those counts stems from the Dec. 22 early-morning robbery of the Wells Federal Bank in St. Peter, where about $3,600 in cash was stolen after the robber surprised a teller arriving for work that morning.
Wetsch was arrested a short distance away from that bank Jan. 3 after he allegedly robbed the Rolling Hills Bank and Trust in Brewster. Wetsch is accused of stealing about $1,900 in cash during that robbery, which is included as one of the counts in the indictment.
Investigators already suspected the man who robbed the bank in St. Peter was the robber known as the “Man in Black,” a suspect sought for more than a dozen bank robberies in the state. They suspected he lived in the Twin Cities and had been driving a white SUV.
After hearing radio traffic about the robbery in Brewster, an alert St. Peter police detective had officers watch for a white SUV with a driver matching the description of the suspected robber. Wetsch was stopped on Highway 169 a couple of hours after the Brewster robbery while apparently driving back to Minneapolis. A large amount of cash and a fake handgun were found in his vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed in Nobles County after his arrest.
Wetsch has been in custody since he was arrested in St. Peter.
The indictment also accuses Wetsch of robbing the First National Bank in Gaylord on June 13. Nearly $9,000 was stolen from that bank, according to federal prosecutors.
Of the robberies listed, the bank in Brewster had the least amount of money stolen. The most cash, about $11,400, was stolen from the Klein Bank in Cologne, a small town southwest of the Twin Cities on Highway 212, on March 9.
Bank robberies in Faribault, Hastings, Alexandria, Eden Prairie, Albertville, Hampton and Richfield are included in the indictment along with several Minneapolis bank robberies.
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