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Police Nab Suspect in $11 Million Heist

Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team secure an armored van on Monday, Aug. 2, 2010 in St. Louis. Four armed bandits clad from head to toe in black overpowered two workers at an ATM-servicing business Monday, then used an armored vehicle to haul away

ST. LOUIS — Officers canvassing the area where gunmen robbed an ATM-servicing company of containers full of cash spotted a car believed to have been used in the heist and arrested its driver after a brief chase through downtown St. Louis, a police official said Tuesday.

The officers spotted the Dodge Charger in midtown St. Louis and began following it, prompting the driver to try to flee, police spokeswoman Katie O’Sullivan said. The driver crashed after a short chase and tried to flee on foot before he was captured, she said.

O’Sullivan declined to identify the driver and said it is too early to call him a suspect. He was being treated for injuries at a hospital, and had not been charged as of Tuesday afternoon, she said.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officers continued searching for three suspects after spending nearly six hours at a house in a north St. Louis neighborhood blocks from the crime scene but found no one inside. STLtoday.com, the website for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said about 20 FBI agents entered the house after other officers fired tear gas through the windows, then filed back outside after a few minutes.

On Monday, four masked gunmen overpowered two workers at ATM Solutions Inc. in midtown St. Louis, subdued them with duct tape and locked them inside the vault. The men carted away containers of cash in one of the company’s armored vans, before ditching the vehicle a short time later.

Authorities have not said how much money was taken, and a spokesman for ATM Solutions did not return phone messages.

The holdup happened in St. Louis’ theater district, not far from the Fox Theater and Powell Symphony Hall.

Authorities said the four bandits waited for one of the business’ employees to come to work, then rushed in behind him, disarmed and subdued him before waiting for a second employee to arrive, apparently knowing it took two workers to separately punch in access codes to open the vault.

All four robbers were armed, but there was no evidence they fired any shots.

Cincinnati-based ATM Solutions replenishes cash in ATMs and maintains the machines for banks and other customers in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

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