Police believe the man may also be connected to other crimes in Sequoyah County.
Thomas Ames, 29, recently surrendered to Crawford County authorities and was booked into the Crawford County Detention Center for breaking or entering, theft of property and burglary, and on a Sequoyah County warrant for robbery.
Sallisaw Police detectives said Tuesday that the victim in the Dec. 7 robbery that occurred at a loan business in Sallisaw positively identified Ames in a photo line up. Sallisaw Police Detective John Owens said Friday that Ames is still in Crawford County awaiting extradition.
Ames may also be connected with a Dec. 6 burglary of a home south of Sallisaw. Ames allegedly traveled to the home in a car owned by his grandmother, and later abandoned the vehicle at the scene after it got stuck in thick mud. Sallisaw police said Sequoyah County Sheriff's investigators are seeking an arrest warrant in connection to that burglary.
Ames was charged in district court with robbery by force and fear Dec. 9, the same day a warrant was filed for his arrest.
According to court records, Kimberly Passmore, an employee of Convenient Loan, 1016 W. Cherokee Ave. in Sallisaw, reported to police that she was robbed as she went to get into her car when she left work. Passmore reported she had bank bags with the deposits under her coat when a man approached her and demanded that she give him the bank bags. Passmore said she initially refused his demand, but after the suspect became more aggressive, she gave him the bags. Passmore told police that the man hit her twice in the face with the bank bag, and fled from the scene. Passmore told police the bag contained about $1,250 in cash and checks.
After a search of the area, police found the bank bag, as well as a brown paper sack containing a half-empty bottle of beer, on the Kansas City Southern railroad right-of-way, which runs west of the loan office.
Further investigation revealed that a man matching the description of the suspect, later identified as Ames, received a ride to Arkansas from another man. Reports indicate Ames had been staying at Callahan Motel with another man, Matthew Jones.
Jones told police that Ames admitted to robbing a house in Sallisaw, and Jones told Ames that he didn't want him staying in his room.
Van Buren police received information about Ames whereabouts and brought him in for questioning. Ames admitted to being in Sallisaw on Dec. 6 and 7. He told police that he and another man, Chris Jones, went to Sallisaw in his grandmother's car to sell crystal meth. Ames said on the night of Dec. 6, he went riding around with Chris Jones and two other men, and was later robbed by the two unknown men. Ames told police that the two men took his car and two eight balls of crystal meth and left him and Chris Jones on the side of the road.
Ames denied any involvement in the robbery.
Police are continuing to investigate whether the Sallisaw robbery is related to an armed robbery that occurred at a Muldrow flower shop earlier Dec. 7. Ames has not been charged in connection with that robbery.
