http://www.twincities.com/ci_7342189?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

I didnt know till after this week he was the owner of alfreds auto body in west fargo.....

A 53-year-old North Dakota auto sales lot owner is the man police say robbed a Hudson bank before committing suicide in a Stillwater hospital parking lot Wednesday.

Hudson police detectives Shawn Pettee and Jeff Knopps went to Fargo and West Fargo, where they received search warrants Thursday for Alfred Josiah Knodle's home and business.

After the search warrants were executed Thursday, they notified his family of his death.

Stillwater police recovered identification, including a business card in the suspected bank robber's car Wednesday, but waited to contact family to ensure doing so wouldn't jeopardize evidence or their investigation. They say he is also the suspect in the robbery of another Hudson bank last week.

Why Knodle picked the Hudson banks, more than 260 miles from his North Dakota home, is still being pieced together. He is the operator of Alfred's Autobody and Sales in West Fargo.

Bank robbers who travel so far from home are rare, Minneapolis-based FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe said Thursday.

"We don't see that very often. There is a very low percentage coming from a different state," he said. "They tend to come from the area, and often from that section of the metro area."

In a similar case of an out-of-state bank robber, a rural northwest Iowa businessman and city council member's secret life of robbing suburban Twin Cities banks came to an end in 2002 when Daniel Huseman crashed while being pursued by officers.

Knodle is
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believed to have entered Citizens Bank Oct. 26 at about 9:45 a.m., demanded money from the clerks, and left with an undisclosed amount of cash in a dark Buick sedan. The Coulee Road bank is one block from the Interstate 94 westbound entrance ramp and Knodle is believed to have taken that route in escaping.

Police say he returned to Hudson Wednesday about 10 a.m., but this time hit Associated Bank on Second Street, which is Hudson's main street and about four blocks from another I-94 entrance ramp.

While he was able to get out of Hudson, dispatchers had already alerted neighboring jurisdictions to watch for a white Ford Mustang, which was then sighted by an Oak Park Height Police officer at 10:10 a.m. He shot himself to death about five minutes later.

The latest robbery was the seventh in Hudson this year, and the sixth since August. With the exception of Associated Bank, and Speedy Cash, about 100 yards away, all of the robberies have been on or near Coulee Road, which has easy access to I-94.

Kevin Harter can be reached at kharter@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2149.