Did you ever live with a roommate after leaving your parent’s home? I did, briefly. How would you respond if your roommate asked you to help them rob a bank?
On a sunny day in spring, in the morning, he walked to a teller window and handed him a note that read, “Give me all the money in both top and bottom drawer or someone in the lobby dies….” He left with more than $20k.
Give me all the money in both top and bottom drawer or someone in the lobby dies….”
One month after the bank robbery, a police examiner identified a latent print found on the demand note. However, the man they identified from the fingerprint wasn’t the man who’d robbed the bank.
The man who’d left a fingerprint on the demand note and the bank teller were roommates.
In the initial interview, on the day of the robbery, the FBI found the bank teller’s behavior suspicious. He didn’t seem upset and had few details about the robber.
As the investigation progressed, agents saw social media photos of the two roommates in what appeared to be high-priced partying activities.
Several months after the bank robbery in another town, officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call. In the vehicle were the note-writer and another man. Because of the ongoing case involving the note-writer, they took the two men into custody and questioned them.
The other man admitted to occasionally staying with the bank-teller and the note-writer. He also admitted to being the one who robbed the bank that netted a big payout—a typical bank robber walks away with less than 5k.
With his two friends in custody, the bank teller turned himself in. All three friends pleaded guilty to bank robbery, a federal crime.
The court sentenced the three men to less than one-year in prison plus three years of supervised released. The court also ordered them to repay the stolen money in restitution.
Worth Mentioning: The FBI identified three odd aspects to this bank robbery.
The robber walked away with a lot of money.
The demand note was too specific in mentioning the upper and lower drawer.
The teller’s behavior.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, FBI
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