OPINION: 'I am impressed with what our guys do'

Oct. 5—You really can't be surprised. It is happening everywhere.

A crime spree has hit Norwalk in a span of about five weeks.

Two recent bank robberies and an attempted gas station robbery this past Saturday. Throw in a police stand-off on Hickory Street in between, and the boys in blue have been busy.

But in all three robbery cases the people were caught, and in the case of the gas station robbery, it was stopped before it was ever happened.

"That was fantastic work on the part of the detective bureau, specifically Scott Hamernik and detectives from the (Huron County) Sheriff's Office," Norwalk Police Chief Dave Smith said.

The Norwalk Police Department detective bureau received information Friday about an individual who was planning to commit armed robbery of the Hy-Miler gas station, 110 Townsend Ave., and West Side Sunoco, 288 W. Main St., both in Norwalk.

With assistance from the Huron County Sheriff's Office detective bureau and members of the Norwalk Police Department's Special Response Team, Billy Craft, 34, of New London, was arrested in the parking lot of the Hy-Miler as he was approaching the business, according to a release from the NPD.

Craft, who was wearing a mask, was found to be in possession of a knife.

"Because the first named business was in the county he got the sheriff's department involved," Smith said. "We called members of our SRT (Special Response Team) to stake out the parking lot. Detective Hamernik received some information and went to work

"All of the evidence was collected throughout the day and our officers waited for him."

Add that to a pair of bank robberies in the span of about three weeks at the Civista Bank on Milan Avenue.

Is it something we should be worried about?

"Of course it is a concern," Smith said. "I've worked for the Norwalk Police department for 29 years. Bank robberies were unheard of until about a month ago, and now we have had two.

"Bank robberies ... wouldn't have guessed it. I have no words for that."

And the same bank hit twice?

"I think we are all a little dumbfounded about that," Smith said.

Civista Bank hired the NPD to guard the bank for two weeks following the first robbery. The next week it happened again.

The NPD is back at the bank.

"We were there awhile full-time and now we are just there sporadically," Smith said.

Stuff like that just doesn't happen here.

"Nationwide crime is up," Smith said. "I don't have a crystal ball. It only takes flipping on the national news to see what is going on around the country."

Smith said there is still a lot of work to do on these cases.

"Honestly, we know a little bit of the motivation of the first one (bank robbery)," Smith said. "He has been transported to Toledo. The second one refused to talk. The best way to answer that is we have a lot of details, but we can't reveal too much because of the ongoing investigation."

And Craft?

"He has spent some significant time in jail," Smith said. "For awhile he wasn't much of a problem at all for us. He was incarcerated for 10 years and he was released in March of this year."

Smith said it happens everywhere, but it's certainly no time to panic around here.

"I don't think it is time to run for the hills," he said. "I am impressed with what our guys do. I think people of Norwalk should be proud of the police department."

But with that said, Smith said don't let your guard down.

"I would recommend they even get in such a habit they lock their cars inside their garage," he said. "I would never counsel anybody to leave their house or cars unlocked ... that is the world we live in, not necessarily the town we live in."

Joe Centers is Reflector community editor. He can be reached at jcenters@norwalkreflector.com.