The College Savings Bank at survived a daring broad daylight holdup when robbers entered the Campustown bank, took president C. A. Knudson and vice president/cashier T. E. LaVelle as hostages, and made off with much of the bank's cash. This is often called the first bank robbery in Ames.
The April 22, 1935 issue of the Ames Daily Tribune-Times carried this article which described a holdup by three robbers. The first, carrying a sawed-off shotgun, was ...medium complexioned; slender face... He was quite well dressed. The second had a ...pocked marked face, "rat like" swarthy expression, poorly dressed... And the third, the ...leader of the bandits who obtained the cash, armed with automatic pistol, wearing overalls... ... It was believed this was the first bank robbery in the history of Ames.