Would-be bank robber is told: Sorry, but we're closed!
Bryan Rourke - The Providence Journal
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CRANSTON, R.I. -- The scene was like something out of a Woody Allen movie: "Take the Money and Run."
On Thursday night an aspiring bank robber approached the Citizens Bank counter inside the Stop & Shop grocery store at 200 Atwood Avenue.
It was just after 7 p.m. The man handed the teller a note, written on a ripped paper plate: "This is a robbery."
But at the time of the robbery, that message wasn't immediately clear, said Major Robert W. Ryan.
"The note was so poorly written the teller had a hard time deciphering it," Ryan said. "She saw the word robbery and instinctively pulled down the security curtain."
The teller told the man that the bank branch was closing, Ryan said, and the teller then pulled down the security screen door to emphasize the point.
It was, after all, just after 7 p.m., closing time for the bank.
The man, who was in his 40s, about 5 feet 8 inches of medium build, with a thin mustache and wearing a black-and-yellow jacket, a Boston Red Sox cap with a cap beneath with ear flaps, and latex gloves with yellow tips, walked away quickly, Ryan said.
In addition, Ryan said, the teller said "the man smelled bad."
The man, who did not show a weapon or say that he had one, Ryan said, left with no money.
The teller and witnesses, Ryan said, described the man as "confused and somewhat disoriented."
In the movie "Take the Money and Run," Woody Allen tries to rob a bank but confuses the teller by misspelling "gun" in his holdup note.
