Bowling Green teenager arrested in Oregon for Arkansas bank robbery

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Oregon State Police have arrested a Bowling Green teenager in connection with the March 11 robbery of Regions Bank in Wynne, Ark.

Oregon police said Nathan B. Beshears, 17, was stopped Friday along Hwy. 101, about 9 miles north of the California state line, for following the vehicle in front of him too closely.

Police learned that Beshears did not have a drivers license in his possession and had provided police with false identifying information. State police said the late-model beige Jeep Cherokee Beshears was driving was reported stolen from a car dealership in this area.

Police found nearly $128,000 cash and about a pound of marijuana when they searched the vehicle. Beshears was accompanied by Felicia M. Balentine, 20, a Wynne, Ark., resident who police say was employed at the Regions Bank the two are suspected of having robbed.

Police said after they learned Beshears and Balentine were wanted on outstanding arrest warrants out of Arkansas, they were arrested as fugitives from justice. They were also charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and possession of a controlled substance. The two are in the Curry County Jail in Oregon, awaiting extradition to Arkansas, where additional charges may be pending.

Burglary Racks Outdoor Sports is missing more than $4,000 worth of firearms after a burglary at 2 a.m. today, according to a city police report.

The business rear door was pried open and 10 guns were taken from a display case. A witness told police he saw two people walking across a field behind the business at about the same time of the burglary, but no physical description was available.

The weapons stolen included a Beretta 9000 .40-caliber, a Beretta 92FS, a Glock 19 9mm, a Glock 22 .40-caliber, a Glock 21 .45-caliber, a Taurus PT 111 9mm, a Taurus PT 145 .45-caliber, a Taurus PT 111 9mm, a Taurus PT 247 .40-caliber and a Heckler and Koch USP .40-caliber.

Anyone with information on the crime is encouraged to call the BGPD at 393-4244.

Robbery Two Bowling Green women and a 7-month-old baby were targeted in a Monday evening armed robbery in the parking lot of Kyoto Japanese restaurant off Scottsville Road.

According to a Bowling Green Police Department report, the two women and the baby were in a vehicle in the parking lot, preparing to leave, when a man demanded that the women hand over their purses.

The man aimed a black gun at all three, took two purses and then told the driver to drive off or he would kill them, according to a police report. The man, described only as a black male, was accompanied by a second person, who stood some distance away. The two were last seen running behind nearby Shoneys.

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