Dan Barry is back in the plains, this time to tell us about a small-town bank robbery

Read the story here. The dateline is Carleton, Nebraska, population 136.

Here's a highlight about what happened after the robbery, when someone called 911:

Within nine minutes the sheriff’s deputies arrived. Soon came the first of many calls of concern and support, a few of which, a smiling Mr. Van Cleef [the bank owner] remembers, went like this: “Hear you’ve been robbed. Can I bring you over a pie?”

The "pie" line says it all because this story, which is ostensibly about a bank robbery, is really just an excuse to share a rural vignette. Among the rural themes in this story are attachment to place and community. There's also good information here about the nature of small-town banking, agricultural lending, and rural economies.