Man gets eight years for robbery

FORT SMITH — A Van Buren man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith on Tuesday on one count of bank robbery.

Roy Dean Lamproe, 43, of Van Buren was sentenced to eight years in federal prison and three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III also imposed $103 in restitution.

Lamproe entered the Arvest Bank at 3015 U.S. 64 in Van Buren at about 2:50 p.m. July 2, according to his plea agreement. He placed two boxes on the teller line, and pulled what tellers believed was a gun from the right side of his body.

Lamproe said there was a bomb in one of the boxes and warned the tellers not to touch it, according to the plea agreement. He then slid the other box toward a teller and demanded money, indicating the teller should put the bank’s money in the box.

Another bank employee later told law enforcement investigators she heard Lamproe say, “25 minutes until the bomb goes off; don’t touch the box; let the cops handle it.”

Lamproe left the bank with $8,116, the plea agreement states. Law enforcement officers were able to identify Lamproe based on the description of him given by bank employees and an image of Lamproe on the bank’s surveillance during the robbery.

Special agents with the FBI went to Lamproe’s mother’s home in Van Buren, where they believed he was living.

Relatives there said Lamproe recently entered the home carrying a box and had taken it upstairs. A parole waiver on file for Lamproe and consent granted by his mother to search the home permitted agents to search it. They found a box with $8,013 in it.

Lamproe was arrested and taken to the Van Buren Police Department. While there, he initially said he didn’t commit the robbery, then said he had been “set up” before admitting he did it.

Lamproe was indicted Aug. 16. He pleaded guilty Oct. 30.

The FBI lead the investigation with the Van Buren Police Department, according to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner prosecuted the case.

Lamproe