By Fallan Patterson

Staff Writer

St. Cloud Police late Tuesday afternoon arrested the two men believed to have robbed the Chase Bank earlier in the day.

Shortly after the robbery of the bank at 4355 13th St. in St. Cloud, police located the suspects’ unoccupied vehicle nearby at the St. Cloud Village Apartments, 201 St. Cloud Village Court, Kissimmee. The complex is less than a mile from the bank.  Investigative leads led to a search warrant being executed at one of the apartments where Vernell Holden, 54, and James E. Holden Jr., 34, were arrested; both were charged with armed robbery.

Called “career criminals” by St. Cloud Police Sgt. Boyd Graham, officers were told Vernell Holden is Holden Jr.’s uncle. Both have served time in prison, are well-known to police and were not cooperating with the investigation, Graham said.

“They are not great at giving us information,” he said.

The suspects wore masks and gloves during the robbery, and one of them brandished a handgun, according to bank employees. The suspects entered the bank at 9:22 a.m. and demanded money.

“It would seem like the least advantageous bank to rob, from a criminal standpoint,” Graham said of the bank’s spacious lobby.

The suspects took $2,452 and then fled in their black Chevrolet HHR, but not before an employee was able to record the getaway vehicle’s license plate.

The vehicle is not registered to either of the men, and detectives are currently looking into whether the owner was involved in the robbery, Graham said. That person’s name is not being released.

Graham said Wednesday it was “purely luck” he found the getaway vehicle at the apartment complex within 10 minutes after the robbery.

“We saturated the area with officers,” Graham said, adding the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office aided the investigation with K-9 units and a helicopter search. “We are very happy to have solved this quickly.”

Police dogs tracked the suspects’ scent to an apartment where a woman, who Graham said is not a suspect, allowed police to search the home. Officers found a handgun, the suspects and a “substantial” amount of cash, more than was taken during Tuesday’s robbery. Detectives are currently trying to determine if the explanation of the money by a resident in the apartment is plausible.

Graham on Tuesday said preliminary photographs, which had not yet being released, do not show either suspect aiming the gun at anyone; however, the gun was “prominently displayed” during the robbery.

There was at least one customer and an undetermined number of employees in the bank during the incident.

Neptune Elementary School, at 1200 Betsy Ross Lane and one mile away from the bank, was briefly locked down following the robbery as a precaution.