Bruce Vielmetti

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In the city, cameras watch everything. In a small town, neighbors often do.

That old-fashioned practice helped thwart two attempted bank robberies last week in Wausaukee, a town of fewer than 600 people in Marinette County. A 32-year-old Crivitz man has now been charged with attempted robbery with use of a dangerous weapon.

"We were just looking out for our town," said Wayne McClister, a clerk at the Krist Oil gas station and convenience store.

On Aug. 5, McClister and his manager were looking out a store window about 11 a.m. and noticed a man walking toward the State Bank of Florence, just south of their store. It was a warm day, and the man was wearing a sweatshirt and heavy work vest.

Graphic: Bank robber thwarted by citizens

The manager, Kadie Menor, 27, knew the same bank had been robbed in March 2015 by Steven Timothy Snyder, who then killed a Wausaukee resident, Thomas Christ, and hours later killed State Trooper Trevor Casper in a shootout in Fond du Lac that also killed Snyder.

The two were already suspicious, but their hearts raced a bit when the man turned toward them, put up his hood and a bandanna over his face, before turning back toward the bank.

Nearly by instinct, McClister said, Menor instantly called the bank and then 911. "She knew all the numbers," he said.

The warning came in time for someone in the bank to activate a silent alarm and lock the door while the suspect was just a couple of steps away. The employee later told investigators the man must have heard her yell to a co-worker that a robber was coming, because he halted and looked up at her as she was locking the door. Then he walked away.

The Marinette County Sheriff's Department was already responding to the 911 call and had contacted other area businesses.

"We were all on lockdown," McClister said. "It was intense."

A few minutes later, the suspect, Ross A. Bertucci, strolled up to the Stephenson National Bank, a few blocks north on Main St. Alerted by the Sheriff's Department, employees had already locked the door but watched as Bertucci tried to open it with his left hand. His right hand was inside a pocket of the vest.

Like in the city, cameras were watching and recording, too.

By then, the sheriff's deputies had converged in Wausaukee, and another citizen tip led them to some rental storage units just east of the Florence bank. They found the man in the specific clothing and ordered him to the ground at gunpoint. In the vest pocket they found a loaded .22-caliber handgun that an area businessman had reported stolen days earlier.

Bertucci told deputies he had been living in a camper at his grandfather's home in Stephenson, about 25 miles away, where investigators later found marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

He said he had taken the gun from one of his employer's trucks, and decided to take it along on the robbery attempts "in case something went wrong." Bertucci said he needed money and figured robbing a bank would be the best option to get some.

Bertucci made his first court appearance Wednesday. He faces two counts of attempted robbery with threat of force, being a felon with a gun, theft and two misdemeanor drug charges. He is being held at the Marinette County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve credits Menor's sharp observation and quick action.

"It was great awareness, and she made the call," he said.