Heist

Even as a kid Luke Elliott Sommer showed a talent for leadership. And by the time he finished U.S. Army Ranger School his mind had become a precision weapon capable of planning strategic attacks on buildings in enemy territory. Then he came home.

By James Ross Gardner

Sommer commanded the remaining tellers to empty the bus, the cash-on-wheels cart where they keep their reserve money. Stotts stuck her key in her bus drawer just as Palmer called the time’s-up: “Let’s go.” Bagless and frustrated that he hadn’t scored anything from the vault, Robertson yelled, “We need the rest of the money; we got to get the money!” “Forget the money,” Sommer ordered, “let’s take what we’ve got.”

He stepped out onto the floor, patted the top of his head, signaling a head count to make sure everyone was ready, and they all charged out the door. Then Sommer stopped, turned around, and addressed everyone in the bank: “Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you all have a nice day.”

The Audi was gone. After the men left his car, Blum had spotted a woman—possibly the same woman Sommer waved at—sitting in her car, face twisted in horror at the sight of four gunmen charging the bank. He waited a minute, but couldn’t get the look on her face out of his head, and drove away. As he rolled down the street he spotted the robbers, disoriented, looking for their getaway car. Blum turned around and they climbed in.

The mood in the car was charged with adrenaline. Sommer dug into the money bag and showed off the loot, much of it $2,000 stacks wrapped in purple and white money bands. $54,011 in all.

Blum dropped Palmer, Robertson, and Dunmall off at a movie theater, where they laid low in a darkened theater eating popcorn and watching a horror flick. Then Blum and Sommer wheeled back to base and heaved the gear into Sommer’s room. That night Palmer caught a flight home to Virginia; Blum flew home to Denver the next morning. Sommer, Robertson, and Dunmall bused it back to Canada.


Back at the bank, a witness came forward. He had seen the bandits jump in and out of the Audi, and written down the license number: Colorado plate number 420NNA, registered to Norm and Alex Blum of Greenwood Village, a Denver suburb. Reviewing the close-quarter battle tactics on the security video, Monte Shaide suspected a military connection. He drove to Fort Lewis the next day and asked the provost martial if a Norm or Alex Blum was a soldier there. The inquiry brought him to barracks building 3475. Most of the Rangers had cleared out for a two-week leave, but Shaide pressed a few stragglers, who admitted to seeing Blum, Palmer, and Sommer with large amounts of cash the night before.

One by one, the robbers got picked up by authorities. The FBI nabbed Alex Blum in Denver. Chad Palmer, in full dress uniform, and his family were leaving their house in Chesapeake for family pictures when a SWAT team swarmed. Nathan Dunmall was arrested in BC. Robertson surrendered at the Peace Arch at the Canadian-American border in Blaine. As for Sommer in Peachland: “My fucking dad turned me in.”


NEXT: Sommer’s media blitz.

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Published: September 2009