HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: An elderly Florida man has been reportedly arrested by the FBI on August 24 for an attempted bank robbery in Hollywood, Florida.
The 67-year-old man, Michael Terry Noojin, attempted to rob the Bank of America branch as he was “in desperate need for rent money,” and it was the “last chance for him to obtain $650 before he would be homeless,” per the New York Post.
Why was Michael Terry Noojin arrested?
On August 24, around 2.40 pm, Noojin stood in a line at a Bank of America branch in Hollywood, Florida. When he reached the awaiting teller, he slid a plastic shopping bag underneath the protective glass divider.
As per an FBI complaint obtained by Daily Beast, he then told the teller, “I have a gun, put all the money in the bag.”
The teller, without complying to his demands, asked Noojin to repeat his statement. That’s when he said, “I’m not playing around, I have a gun, put the money in the bag.”
The cashier, who said she did not see a gun with Noojin, closed the cash drawer and urged the other two tellers to do the same.
One of the other two tellers activated the emergency alarm, per the criminal complaint submitted to the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, as reported by the New York Post.
Noojin, realizing that his plan had failed, fled through the emergency exit after grabbing the brown bag.
The surveillance footage showed him wearing blue jeans with a yellow polo shirt with sailboats and birds, white shoes and sunglasses. He had a band-aid stuck on his face.
Florida man taken into federal cutody
After the failed bank robbery, his face quickly went viral on TV. Soon, a person identified him at the home he was staying at and informed the police.
As police came and interviewed him, he admitted that he attempted to rob the bank and showed the same yellow shirt that he wore during the botched mission.
He also said the band-aid on his face was because of the “skin cancer he had on his face.”
A complaint was later filed against him on Sunday, August 27, at the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The complaint charged him with “knowingly, by means of intimidation, attempting to take from the person and presence of an employee of a federally insured bank, United States currency belonging to, and in the care, custody, control, management, and possession of the Hollywood, Florida Bank of America.”
Noojin had been taken into FBI custody because the Bank of America branch is insured by the FDIC.
However, the complaint also mentions the motive for his attempted robbery, saying, “Noojin explained his motive for conducting the bank robbery was that he was in desperate need for rent money.”
It further read, “It was the last chance for him to obtain $650.00 before he would be homeless.”
Noojin is expected to appear initially in Fort Lauderdale federal court.
