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Notorious AK-47 Bandit may now be in custody

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June 27th, 2017 by Ric Hanson

A notorious criminal who robbed a Mason City credit union two years ago and committed other crimes in Nebraska and across the western United States -may- be in custody. In 2012 and 2014, a man the FBI called the “AK-47 Bandit” robbed several banks, as well as shot and wounded a police officer in Chino, California. 39-year-old Richard Gathercole was arrested last week in Dawson County, Nebraska after allegedly firing shots from an AK-47 rifle at a Kansas state trooper.

FBI Los Angeles spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says numerous agencies are investigating whether evidence found in the search of a Roundup, Montana home is linked to the suspect. A jailhouse phone call transcript submitted to a judge by federal officials seeking a search warrant for the Montana home shows Gathercole asked his mother a few days after his arrest to clear his home of guns. Federal agents say homemade bombs were found at the home.

Court documents show that Gathercole is accused of stealing $126-thousand from the Iowa Heartland Credit Union in Mason City on July 28th, 2015 after informing tellers he had a “pressure bomb.”

(Radio Iowa)