A Hellertown Police SUV is shown parked outside the BB&T branch at 741 Main Street shortly after a robbery took place there on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Lower Saucon Township resident Kurt Michael Laudenslager, 47, was later charged with and admitted to commiting the crime. He was sentenced this week to eight-and-a-half years in prison for it. (FILE PHOTO)
Details about a September 2018 downtown Hellertown bank robbery emerged at the sentencing of the man who in May pleaded guilty to committing the crime.
Kurt Michael Laudenslager, 47, of Lower Saucon Township, was sentenced Thursday to eight-and-a-half years in prison plus five years of probation by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson, the Morning Call reported in a story that also highlighted a sentencing memorandum from U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Stephan, who told Leeson Laudenslager “is clearly a dangerous person.”
The newspaper reported that in committing the robbery, Laudenslager carried a silver Airsoft gun and passed a BB&T teller a note that read “Simple… Got a gun” before fleeing with $2,500 in cash, leaving behind a teller who was so traumatized by the incident that she told the court she retired early from her job at the bank.
In May 2019, Kurt Michael Laudenslager, 47, pleaded guilty to robbing the BB&T branch at 741 Main Street on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Laudenslager–who was living on Skibo Road in Lower Saucon Township at the time of the robbery–is pictured above in a bank security image that was released by the Hellertown Police Department as part of an effort to identify him immediately following the robbery. Earlier this week Laudenslager was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson to eight-and-a-half years in prison plus five years of supervision for committing the crime. Laudenslager previously blamed his decision to rob the busy downtown bank on gambling and alcohol addictions. (FILE PHOTO)
