KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Police in Mooresville said surveillance pictures aired on WSOC-TV pointed them to a man suspected of robbing two banks and trying to rob a third.
Mooresville police said tips called into a Crimestoppers line in Iredell County led them to Dacey Maurice Jones, 46, of Kannapolis, less than a week after they said Jones walked into the Fifth Third Bank in downtown Mooresville and tried to rob it.
"Several people called into the Mooresville South Iredell Crimestoppers and gave us names and also an address," said Capt. Joe Cooke.
Cooke said officers followed those leads to Jones' home early Wednesday morning where, with the help of police from Kannapolis and Concord, they arrested Jones and said they found evidence tying him to the attempted robbery in Mooresville on May 24 and a robbery of a Fifth Third branch in Huntersville less than an hour later.
Concord police also charged Jones with robbing a BB&T branch there on May 9 and Cooke said the surveillance pictures were critical.
"That was actually our objective -- reaching out to the news is to try to identify him," Cooke said.
News of the arrest brought a measure of relief to Mooresville, where brash robberies like that are rare and Crystal Brown, a bank customer, said even better was the way the case came together.
"So somebody called in and actually did something about it and turned him in? That's awesome," she said.
Police said Jones may be a suspect in other robberies, and that he may face federal charges in one or more of those cases.
WSOC
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