The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained a warrant Tuesday charging a suspect in the Aug. 4 robbery of the Goppert Financial Bank in Lathrop.
An attorney for Acting U.S. Attorney Matt J. Whitworth for the Western District of Missouri released an affidavit detailing some of the case against Michael Dale Sandgren, who is also known as Mick Sandgren.
Mr. Sandgren, a convicted felon, was arrested by the St. Joseph Police Department as he left 2007 Jones St. on Aug. 25.
C. Andrew Thomure, an FBI special agent assigned to the St. Joseph office, stated that Mr. Sandgren hadn't been satisfied with the amount of money obtained Aug. 25 in a robbery in Platte City. Mr. Sandgren was looking for another financial institution to rob when police officers arrested him leaving the Jones Street house, the agent stated.
The affidavit states that a girlfriend testified that Mr. Sandgren used her car, a 1997 Oldsmobile, in a series of robberies that began on June 2 at the Goetz Credit Union. After each event, the couple would stay in a motel for a night and use drugs, the girlfriend told law enforcement officers.
The court document states that following the Goetz robbery, Mr. Sandgren allegedly robbed a Family Dollar Store on June 6, a Wonder Bread Thrift Store on June 9, the Crumbly Burger on June 18, the Postal and Community Credit Union on June 29, Midwest Federal Saving Bank on July 9, Cirilla's on July 16, another robbery of the Postal and Community Credit Union on July 21 and the Dollar Tree store on Aug. 2.
Witnesses at the Dollar Store and More in Platte City on Aug. 25 provided information about the Oldsmobile used in that robbery. And the Missouri State Highway Patrol crime laboratory confirmed DNA evidence from a shirt recovered following the Crumbly Burger robbery, which matches existing records on Mr. Sandgren.
Mr. Sandgren is being held on a forgery charge in the Buchanan County Jail.
Following normal procedures, it is believed the U.S. Attorney's office will present additional FBI evidence about the robberies of financial institutions to a grand jury, which would consider additional charges and an indictment some time in the future.
Marshall White can be reached at marshall@npgco.com.
