MANNHEIM, Germany — Army police are holding a 21-year-old soldier suspected of a brazen daylight bank robbery at a military base in southwest Germany, according to military officials.
Spc. Daniel A. Sampe, a helicopter mechanic with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Aviation Regiment in Mannheim, was charged with robbing the local Community Bank at Coleman Barracks, said Army spokesman Maj. Mark Wright.
A lone, masked gunman brandishing a pistol, blitzed the bank wearing an Army physical training uniform at 10 a.m. on Sept. 29, shortly after the bank opened. Army officials refuse to release the amount of money stolen, but the robber was able to slip away unnoticed.
Officials are also being tightlipped on how they are connecting the case to Sampe, but investigators had offered a reward for information on the robbery.
“The reward hasn’t been finalized yet,” said Wright. “We’re not sure if anyone will get it at this point.”
Coleman Barracks is the home of Sampe’s unit, as well as the 18th Military Police Brigade and the Army’s main jail in Europe, where Sampe is now being held in pretrial confinement.
Sampe will appear before the Army’s version of a grand jury hearing in the coming weeks, where officials will recommend how to prosecute the soldier.
