NEW PALESTINE — An Indianapolis man broke into a New Palestine bank and helped himself to refreshments before calling 911 from inside claiming to have a heart attack, police say.
Deputies with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to First Merchants Bank, in the 7400 block of West U.S. 52, shortly after 3 a.m. Thursday in response to interior motion detected in the building.
Captain Robert Harris with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department said that as officers arrived on scene, dispatchers received a 911 call from inside the bank from a man later determined to be Joshua D. Hickman, 31, Indianapolis. Hickman told the dispatcher he was having a heart attack, Harris said.
Harris said that Hancock County Sheriff’s Deputy Kyle Addison saw a broken window at the bank and a man inside. When Addison went inside, the man told him he had to break in to use a phone to call for help because he was suffering from a heart attack, Harris said.
Video surveillance footage tells a different story, however, Harris continued. Harris said that a man can be seen throwing a rock at one of the bank’s windows that does not break before succeeding with a second attempt with another window.
Once inside, surveillance footage shows the man eating candy from a dish and making a drink with a Keurig beverage machine, Harris said. Harris said Addison reported that the man bypassed two phones before getting to the one from which he called 911.
“While on the phone with 911 he was drinking coffee with his other hand,” Harris said the video footage shows.
As soon as the man saw officers arriving, he held his chest as if having a heart attack, Harris said. The suspect was transported to Hancock Regional Hospital, where a medical evaluation indicated he had not recently suffered from a heart attack, Harris continued.
Online court records indicate Hickman was charged in Hancock Superior Court 1 on Friday with burglary, a Level 5 felony; and criminal mischief, a B misdemeanor.
First Merchants Bank in New Palestine declined to comment.
