An unusual case for the police in Pleasant Hill, a small town in the American Midwest: According to media reports, a 78-year-old woman is said to have robbed a bank there. She was caught shortly after the fact, as reported by The Kansas City Star newspaper over the weekend.
As it turned out, the suspect had been convicted of bank robbery at least twice, according to court records.
As the newspaper writes, the woman entered the bank in the 9,000-inhabitant town south-east of Kansas City in the US state of Missouri on Wednesday last week. She wore plastic gloves, an N95 respirator and black sunglasses.
She gave the cashier a note that read: “This is a robbery, I need 13,000 small bills, thanks and sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
According to the report, the woman drove away in an SUV with a disabled ID card on it. When the police stopped her in a parking lot shortly afterwards, she smelled strongly of alcohol. There were lots of small bills scattered on the floor of the car.
According to the newspaper, the woman had already been convicted of a bank robbery in California in 1977. On January 23, 2020, her son called the police and said that his mother had gone completely nuts and wanted to rob a bank.
At Lee’s Summit, also Missouri, she reportedly extorted $3,000 and was caught shortly thereafter. She received a suspended sentence for this, the suspended sentence expired in November 2021.
After the Pleasant Hill arrest, Police Chief Tommy Wright said he had never arrested a bank robbery suspect that age in his 30 years on the job. “When officers approached (the car) they were a bit confused at first…a little old lady got out. We weren’t sure we had the right person at first,” Wright told the Kansas City Star.