SOUTH WHITLEY - Area police weren't surprised by the identity of the man accused of robbing the First Federal Savings Bank at South Whitley Tuesday morning.

Kosciusko County authorities targeted Jeffrey Robert Zoll, 49, of Warsaw, as a suspect in an April 3 robbery of the Pierceton branch of Lake City Bank, but were unable to locate him. He was out on bond from the Kosciusko County Jail after allegedly robbing a Leesburg bank earlier this year.

Zoll was residing at a Barbee Lake residence in January when he was arrested for the robbery of the Farmers State Bank in Leesburg. Authorities said there were similarities between the Leesburg robbery and the Pierceton robbery that led them to focus on Zoll. However, he has not been charged in connection with the Pierceton bank robbery. Zoll is being held in the Whitley County Jail on charges of armed robbery, theft and fleeing law enforcement. No bond was set; the bond amount, if any, will be determined when Zoll makes his initial court appearance in this case.

FBI agents reportedly were attempting to interview Zoll Tuesday evening, while other area law enforcement agency officials waited to talk with him. No information was available as to whether Zoll was cooperating with police or whether he confessed to committing any of the crimes.

According to a press release from the Indiana State Police Fort Wayne Post, a man entered the South Whitley branch of First Federal Savings Bank at 9:17 a.m. Tuesday and displayed a handgun before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of money. Bank employees immediately called police with a description of the suspect and of the vehicle he was driving.

A pursuit ensued when the suspect vehicle was spotted about 9:41 a.m. by ISP Sgt. Gary Leatherman, who initiated the chase when the car Zoll was driving reportedly sped away as Leatherman attempted to stop the vehicle. The pursuit covered distances along several county roads and, at Whitley CR 700E and Ind. 114, Zoll's vehicle went through a lawn and fence, causing extensive damage.

The chase ended at 9:58 a.m. on Covington Road in Allen County, when Zoll reportedly pulled into the driveway of a residence there and was surrounded by police cars. Before being taken into custody, Zoll allegedly rammed an Allen County Sheriff's Department car, then put the car he was driving into reverse and rammed Leatherman's car.

At the time Zoll was taken into custody, police also reportedly recovered evidence of the South Whitley bank robbery. No details of the evidence were released.

Zoll is also a suspect in several other area robberies of banks and liquor stores. He was convicted of bank robbery in Decatur in 1975 and has an arrest record of minor offenses in Kosciusko County, including an October drunk driving offense for which he recently failed to appear for sentencing. A warrant is outstanding for his arrest in that matter.

Also, Zoll was scheduled to appear for a status conference at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in regard to the Leesburg robbery, for which Tom Earhart, of Reed and Earhart Attorneys at Law, Warsaw, was appointed Zoll's pauper counsel. Earhart filed a motion on March 14 to invoke an alibi defense in the case.

When Zoll allegedly robbed the Leesburg bank, he reportedly was driving a vehicle taken for a test drive from an area car dealership. A green pickup reportedly stolen from the residence of a neighbor of Zoll's was recovered Tuesday from a Fort Wayne motel parking lot and was allegedly at the scene of several of the recent robberies in the Pierceton-South Whitley-Huntington area. The red Mercury Cougar Zoll was reportedly driving when Tuesday's robbery occurred carried temporary tags and was registered to someone other than Zoll. Authorities do not know whether the vehicle was stolen or borrowed.

The ISP Bureau of Criminal Investigations followed up Tuesday's incident with scene investigation and witness interviews. Evidence technicians for the Fort Wayne Regional Laboratory assisted detectives at the scene, and officers from the Whitley County Sheriff's Department and South Whitley Police Department assisted in the investigation. [[In-content Ad]]