Man, 46, held in Climax bank robbery

CLIMAX, Mich. (WOOD) - A previous traffic offense plus witness descriptions led the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department to arrest a man for robbing the Climax Banking Center on Sept. 12.

Michael Mitchell was arrested after allegedly robbing the bank then fleeing into a cornfield and getting away.

Witnesses provided police with descriptions of the robber -- a white man, about 6 feet tall, with a salt-and-pepper mustache, wearing a light-colored hoodie, a dark ski mask and blue jeans, whose hair may be shoulder length and balding on top.

Sheriff Richard Fuller said enough people in the village saw the suspect casing the bank the day before and provided the description. When a corrections officer put that description into the jail's computer, it spit out the name of the suspect -- even though he'd only been arrested once before on a traffic violation.

Mitchell, 46, admitted the crime, Fuller said. The Parchment man was so cooperative the sheriff's department allowed him to get his affairs in order and turned himself in Thursday.

Mitchell has a family and owns a car repair business, Fuller said, but he has a gambling problem that apparently put Mitchell in debt.

While the search for Mitchell was in progress, the Climax-Scotts Junior High and High School were on lockdown.