An armed man wearing a stocking on his face pulled off a heist, still unsolved, at Mauch Chunk Trust Company in Hometown on Aug. 26.

The suspect, a black male over 6 feet tall, made off with an unknown amount of money and red dye packs. Surveillance showed he got into a Ford Explorer Sport Trac four-door pickup.The 911 dispatch also mentioned the possibility of an accomplice, although that information was never confirmed nor updated.Police said the pickup was involved in a hit-and-run shortly after 4 p.m. on Poplar Street in Hazleton.In that incident, a flutter of money, perhaps from the Hometown robbery, flew out of the truck and landed on the roadway.Earlier in the day, a man with a similar description to the Hometown suspect tried to enter FNCB Bank on West Broad Street in Hazleton. According to Hazleton police, he was scared away when employees approached and never gained entrance.Police searched the area from Hazleton to Tresckow, assisted by a state police helicopter but no arrests were made.The heist was the second daylight robbery in Hometown in nine days.On Aug. 18, robbers entered Radio Shack at HT Commons Shopping Center late morning, tied up an employee and stole a significant amount of electronic equipment.Theft from accountsShelly Ann Kocher, 43, of Lehighton, admitted stealing $321,324 from accounts at Jim Thorpe National Bank. The charges were filed against her Jan. 21 and she entered a guilty plea on March 10.She committed the theft from customer accounts while she worked as a customer service supervisor at the Jim Thorpe National Bank in Jim Thorpe.Kocher was employed by the bank from 1999 until May 2013.According to court records, she embezzled the funds by making unauthorized withdrawals from customers' CD and savings accounts between April 2010 and April 2013, according to court records.When the shortages were discovered, the bank reimbursed the victims for their losses.She is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Jan. 8 and faces up to 30 years in prison.Marta Gouger