Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Call it good timing or some unwise moves on the part of a suspect, but a Hamburg man is in jail in Minneapolis on bank robbery charges following a late afternoon incident in Forest Lake on Thursday, Jan. 5.

Thomas Daniel Trammel Jr., 28, who also shows an address in Green Isle, was arrested at the I-35 exit in Harris just minutes after the robbery was reported at US Bank, 320 W. Broadway Ave.

Chief of Police Clark Quiring said a single male entered the bank at 4:17 p.m., handed a note to an employee, demanded money and showed a gun in his waist band.

The chief said the bank employee complied and the subject left the office with an undisclosed amount of money. A witness reported seeing the robber leaving the scene in a white Ford Explorer.

Thatís where the good luck and the missteps came into play, police said.

Police Sgt. Ron Hanegraaf said an off duty investigative officer for the Minnesota State Patrol was driving north to Duluth when the bank robbery call came over the police radio. The suspectís Ford Explorer went by the unmarked State Patrol at a high rate of speed, police said.

Hanegraaf said the State Patrol officer provided surveillance of the suspect vehicle and helped coordinate a police stop.

Other state troopers and deputies from the Chisago County Sheriffís Office were near the Harris exit when the vehicle left the freeway but was unable to stop at the top of the exit ramp and ran off the road.

I-35 in both directions was closed at the Harris exit for a short time when the suspect was at first thought to have a hostage. Forest Lake police said officers at the scene observed the suspect drinking from a quart bottle of vodka.

He surrendered to police after a short time, police said. A B-B handgun that resembled a firearm was recovered. He was taken to the police station in Forest Lake before being transferred to the Washington County Jail in Stillwater.

Police said Trammel was highly intoxicated and is believed to have sideswiped at least two vehicles during his drive from Forest Lake to Harris.

He was charged in federal district court on Friday with felony bank robbery and is now being held at a federal facility in Minneapolis.

Along with officers from Forest Lake, agencies involved in the apprehension were the Minnesota State Patrol, deputies from Chisago and Washington County and the FBI.

The bank holdup is the second in Forest Lake in the past three months. In October, TCF Bank, 1186 W. Broadway Ave. was robbed. No arrests have been made in that crime.

Top of Page

Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605