Man charged with robbing Bloomington bank served prison time for bizarre stalking case
Police had been looking for Travis Shane Tarrants since just before noon Monday, when a man wearing camouflage clothing showed a bank teller the handle of a gun, placed a bag on the counter and demanded money during a robbery.
A surveillance camera outside Old National Bank on West Third Street in Bloomington showed a man matching the appearance of the robber parking a truck near the bank and later leaving in the vehicle. The license plate was visible, and police were looking for the driver.
On Tuesday, detectives in the area of Lake Monroe saw the truck northbound on Ind. 446 near Cutright State Recreation Area. They confronted 45-year-old Tarrants in the parking lot of the nearby Fishin' Shedd and told him he was under arrest, accused of robbing the bank.
"As officers were in the process of handcuffing Tarrants, he resisted arrest and attempted to get back inside his vehicle. At one point while officers were trying to gain control of Tarrants, he grabbed an officer’s handgun and attempted to remove it from the officer’s holster," Bloomington Police Department Capt. Ryan Pedigo said in a news release.
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Tarrants was subdued and taken to jail. Police said a search of the truck he was driving turned up a backpack that contained clothing that matched those worn by the bank robbery suspect and also a black BB pistol that resembled the one shown during the robbery.
After speaking with investigators, Tarrants, who has a Spencer address, was transported to the Monroe County Jail on $15,000 surety and $1,500 cash bond. He is charged with three felonies: armed robbery, attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer and resisting law enforcement resulting in injury.
An initial hearing in Monroe Circuit Court was scheduled for Thursday. It won't be the first time Tarrants will stand before a judge and hear the criminal charges against him read aloud.
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Tarrants was released from state prison earlier this year after serving a 5-year term he received after pleading guilty to two counts of felony stalking in connection with a bizarre 2016 case in Jackson County.
According to a detective's report filed in Jackson Circuit Court, Tarrants applied in the spring of 2016 for a fourth-grade teaching position and basketball coaching job in the Springs Valley School Corp. in Orange County.
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When he didn't get hired, police say he retaliated by accusing the man who got the job of having sex with students, threatening to kill the man's fiancee and baby, and sending dead animals in the mail to school officials and the hired teacher.
The report says there were four calls to the Department of Child Services alleging sexual abuse perpetrated by the man who got the teaching job instead of Tarrants. The calls came from a pay phone located behind the West Baden French Lick Museum. Tarrants was employed there as the director.
Threatening phone calls, messages and dead animals connected to museum director
A Springs Valley teacher who served on the museum board of directors identified the voice on the recorded calls as Tarrants, court records show.
The museum director also was accused of threatening in voicemail messages to kill the newly hired teacher, his fiancee and their child unless the teacher resigned.
"This is no joke. We're coming after you and your (expletive) little baby and this is not a joke. Tell (the man) to resign or you die," one message said.
A July 2017 plea agreement dismissed two felony allegations of intimidation for the threats and also two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief accusing Tarrants of using white spray paint to put threatening messages on the two victim's cars.
Then there were the dead wild animals. "Four packages containing dead skunks and one raccoon have been placed in the U.S. mail," the detective's report states.
One package, with two dead skunks inside, was sent to the school district office in Seymour where the fiancee was a teacher. Another two, each containing one dead skunk and with return addresses of area high school sports officials, were sent to the teacher who go the job Tarrants wanted.
A fourth package, with a dead raccoon stuffed inside, was sent to a Jackson County school and had the fiancee's return address.
Four months ago, 45-year-old Tarrants filed a petition in Owen Circuit Court to change his name.
The request was put on hold when he failed to appear for a court hearing to address his petition, which "appears to be defective in that it does not allege whether petitioner has felony convictions," the court docket said, which would prohibit changing his name.
Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Old National Bank robbery suspect Travis Tarrants has bizarre past
