Bank robber headed to state prison

NORRISTOWN » A Philadelphia man who hailed a taxi service to escape after robbing a Conshohocken bank saw a prison bus as his next ride for a trip to a state penitentiary.

Blake Ammons, 36, of the 1100 block of East Dunton Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to two to four years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony robbery charge in connection with the 4:44 p.m. Feb. 19, 2016, holdup at the PNC Bank along Fayette Street in Conshohocken.

Judge Gary S. Silow recommended that Ammons be incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Chester in Delaware County. Ammons was to be transported from the county jail, where he had been held pending trial, to the state prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

An investigation began when employees of the bank notified police that a man wearing a gray hat, sunglasses, black jacket, black scarf and jeans entered the bank in the 300 block of Fayette Street and “handed a teller a note stating he had a gun and demanding United States currency,” Conshohocken Detective William Walter wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Witnesses told detectives the robber left the rear of the bank and then got into a full-size taxi van.

A description of Ammons and the van was broadcast to surrounding police departments after the incident.

A short time later, a West Conshohocken police officer observed the vehicle matching the description of the taxi van traveling onto eastbound Route 76. Officers from Conshohocken and West Conshohocken subsequently conducted a traffic stop of the van and determined the rear seat passenger, Ammons, matched the description of the man who robbed the bank, according to the criminal complaint.

At the time of the stop police observed Ammons attempting to close his backpack which contained the stolen cash, according to the criminal complaint. Court documents did not indicate how much money was taken during the robbery.

A bank employee subsequently identified Ammons as the male who robbed the bank.

Police did not recover a weapon. The driver of the taxi service was interviewed by police and released.