The FBI said it found and arrested a bank robber who left his address on a note he handed to a teller during the robbery.
The man, identified as Michael Harrell, 54, walked into a U.S. Bank in Cleveland on Monday, July 29 around 11 a.m. and handed the teller the note ordering them to hand over money, Fox 8 reported.
The teller complied and Harrell left.
But the note included his name and address.
“When the teller took the note, and looked at it and looked at the other side, she saw his name. He had used a note that he had used earlier at the BMV and it had his name on it,” Cleveland FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson told Fox 8.
The teller even used Harrell’s first name when speaking to him after reading the note.
“She actually even referred to him as Michael,” Anderson said. “Gave him the money and called him Michael and then notified law enforcement.”
There was also surveillance footage captured inside the bank. The Cleveland Police Department and the FBI were able to identify and locate the suspect.
Anderson told WOIO on Thursday that Harrell was in policy custody.
Two arrests were made Sunday in connection to these robberies. Thank you to all our law enforcement partners along the East Coast. https://t.co/racyDJPj5i
— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) July 29, 2019
Two Arrested in ‘Pink Lady Bandit’ Robberies
The FBI said that two people were arrested in connection to the so-called “Pink Lady Bandit” bank robberies. The moniker stemmed from a pink bag the female suspect carried during at least two robberies.
Circe Baez and Alexis Morales were arrested on Sunday, July 28 in connection to four robberies along the East Coast, two in North Carolina, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Delaware.
Multiple police departments and the FBI conducted an investigation that led to the identification of Baez as the woman who robbed the bank.
PINK LADY BANDIT: We’re now learning the woman accused of robbing four banks in three states was on probation for a DUI in Dauphin Co., PA. She’s accused of robbing two banks here in NC before being arrested at a motel in Charlotte. @WBTV_News pic.twitter.com/ZywdC35UxT
— Paige Pauroso (@PaigePauroso) July 29, 2019
Morales was an accomplice, authorities said. They were arrested at an inn in Charlotte.
“We don’t know if they were traveling through Charlotte, if they stopped on their way somewhere else, or if perhaps they were considering a bank robbery in this area,” public information officer for the FBI, Shelley Lynch, told WBTV.
The manager of the hotel, the Charlotte Speedway Inn and Suites, said that he assisted the authorities.
Omar Imam said they showed him a picture of the suspects and he guided them to the room they were staying in.
“He happened to come in a day before, just to get his key done, so there I got his picture somehow recognized,” Imam told WCNC.
A negotiation unfolded during which authorities told the suspects their pet would not be harmed.
“They (the suspects) were kind of concerned about, ‘Oh, we have dogs in our room, so we don’t want any harm done to their dog’,” says Imam. “He (the officer) kind of gave them all the instruction, just come out with your hands up where I can see them.”
Both suspects were being held at the Pitt County Detention Center in Greenville, North Carolina, on $4 million bond. Baez was said to have been on probation for a DUI she received in Pennsylvania.
