A heist gone wrong, a Waite Park man has finally admitted to robbing a St. Cloud bank at scissor-point, as U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced a guilty plea in a press release from the Department of Justice. Ray Reco McNeary, a 38-year-old local, burst into the Wells Fargo Bank on May 6, 2021, fuming over alleged fraud on an account that apparently never existed, and then decided to turn the bogus bank beef into a full-fledged hostage situation.
In a desperate bid for cash, McNeary demanded a whopping $60,000. When the manager failed to appease his demands, the bank's silent alarm summoned the St. Cloud police to the scene not long after McNeary's arrival, launching what would become an eight-hour standoff replete with harrowing moments as McNeary pressed cold scissors to the manager's neck. Back—and throughout it, four hostages found their moment to escape unharmed before the manager's flight ended the ordeal, leading to McNeary's arrest.
After his day in court, McNeary copped to one count of armed bank robbery in U.S. District Court right before Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan, with details provided by an official announcement from the U.S. Attorney's office on March 29, 2024, now the justice system gears up for a sentencing hearing that's yet to be put on the books.
The ordeal that gripped St. Cloud was unraveled by the determined efforts of the FBI coupled with local law enforcement, and as the case moves toward its conclusion, Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Steinkamp takes the helm in prosecution, ensuring the seams of justice are tightly stitched around the facts of the case, leaving no loose ends in the narrative of Ray Reco McNeary's armed descent into criminal infamy.
