Subway robbery 'an inside job,' arrests made

Monday, December 19, 2011

A reported Thursday night theft at the Greencastle Subway was actually an inside job, Greencastle City Police said Sunday.

"We had our thoughts about that from the beginning," GPD Assistant Chief Brian Hopkins told the Banner Graphic Sunday evening. "You see now why I said 'alleged robbery' (in his initial press release)?"

At a result of the investigation, three Greencastle young people are being charged in the case, including the alleged victim who reported the now-bogus robbery, Subway employee Haley Ellis, 21.

After conducting interviews Friday, Saturday and Sunday, GPD Det. Randy Seipel arrested former Subway employee Matt Davidson and his alleged accomplice, Josh Lizotte, both 19.

Davidson and Lizotte were incarcerated at the Putnam County Jail Sunday on preliminary charges of theft.

Det. Seipel also requested that a warrant be issued for the arrest of Ellis. Charges pending against her include false informing and theft.

All pending charges are under review by the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office.

Det. Seipel was able to get confessions from all three suspects, Assistant Chief Hopkins reported.

The two young men were described as "remorseful and upset," also admitting they had been smoking the banned synthetic marijuana substance K-2 (aka "Spice") before the incident that unfolded shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday.

The trio decided to make it look like a robbery had occurred at the restaurant in the Shoppes of Greencastle center at 1360 E. Indianapolis Rd. on the city's East Side.

The suspects reportedly decided that Davidson and Lizotte would enter the restaurant while Haley was closing and make it look like a robbery. Then, after they left, Haley would inform police and Subway management that she had been robbed.

The undisclosed amount of cash was then split up between the three suspects, police said.

The idea of the robbery being an inside job came up almost immediately after it was reported since the faux intruders seemed to exhibit inside knowledge of Subway's nightly closing procedures. The restaurant's front door is locked at 10 p.m. nightly, meaning there would be no one in the dining room while employees cleaned up and operated the drive-through window.

The contrived incident occurred about 10:10 after Ellis said she opened the back door and went outside to put trash in the dumpster.

That is when she told police she was overpowered by one intruder while two others ran inside and took cash from the registers.

All of that inside activity was caught on videotape, which Assistant Chief Hopkins said proved useful to investigators.

"That did help quite a bit but we also received other information from management and other people. Word of mouth kind of gets out, and you look at the video and start putting bits and pieces together," Hopkins added.

In other words, the videotape might help show whether or not activity appeared staged or at least less frantic than under normal robbery conditions. Authorities also were able to see who had been coming and going at the restaurant that night, Hopkins said.

The initial investigation began when Officer Eric Vaughan was called to the restaurant at 10:11 p.m. Thursday. Ellis initially reported that the robbers were three white males who ran south toward Walmart after taking the money and exiting the building as they entered, via the rear door.

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  • I suspected this from the get go.

    -- Posted by Keyboard_hero on Sun, Dec 18, 2011, at 10:31 PM
  • NICE WORK, GPD! I DON'T THINK TOO MANY PEOPLE PICKED UP ON THE WORDING "ALLEGED BURGLARY." AS INDICATED BY THE COMMENTS ON THE FIRST ARTICLE, MOST WERE TOO QUICK TO CRITICIZE AND SIMPLY WANTED TO MAKE "CHEAP SHOTS" ABOUT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. AGAIN, NICE WORK, GPD!

    -- Posted by Michele1953 on Sun, Dec 18, 2011, at 10:58 PM
  • From Sandwich Artists to Con Artists...

    -- Posted by ProblemTransmission on Mon, Dec 19, 2011, at 1:21 AM
  • good job GPD> now lets work on some of the REAL unsolved crimes in city and county.

    -- Posted by rugersr1911 on Mon, Dec 19, 2011, at 3:56 AM
  • GOOD JOB GUYS!! We wish you would report on at least a few of the "warrents" you serve,,maybe these complainers would realize what you really do!!! Keep up the good work!

    -- Posted by Ya THUNK on Mon, Dec 19, 2011, at 8:03 AM
  • Wow, the only reason I say wow is because I am not surprised.

    -- Posted by BlackBarbie22 on Mon, Dec 19, 2011, at 2:14 PM
  • Great job to the officers, detectives.

    -- Posted by GRNT on Mon, Dec 19, 2011, at 7:34 PM
  • And this is WHY the crimes only increase!! I wonder how long its been since she was spanked by her parents!!! OPPS!!! NOT POLITICALY CORRECT!

    -- Posted by Ya THUNK on Tue, Dec 20, 2011, at 6:37 AM
  • Really? 2 - 19yo and a 21 yo had jobs (hard to find these days) and look what happened? They all turn out to be thieves.

    Meanwhile, there are honest, trustworthy people out there who believe in working for their money. Looks like Subway is hiring again.

    How about making a better choice of employees this time, SUBWAY?

    Good job, GPD.

    -- Posted by Emmes on Tue, Dec 20, 2011, at 11:37 AM
  • Can't wait to see the lineup photos .. I wonder if they look just as the female described?

    "The victim described the suspect who held her as a white male, 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing approximately 170 pounds. He was reportedly wearing a camouflage ski mask, red hoodie sweatshirt and dark sweat pants.

    She described the other two suspects as approximately 5-7 and 150-170 pounds, and approximately 6-1 and 160-170 pounds."

    What idiots. lmao

    -- Posted by Emmes on Tue, Dec 20, 2011, at 11:42 AM
  • I say tie them up and put them in chairs with a sign thats says dumb___ around their necks and let us throw rotten tomatoes at them. I don't think prison would help these people probably make them worse but nobody likes to be embarrassed.

    -- Posted by T.C. FATHER OF 2 on Thu, Dec 22, 2011, at 12:20 PM
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