He wore his ‘lucky robbing jacket’ to rob a bank — then got caught, Florida cops say

For one Florida man, setting out to rob a bank required a very particular style, according to local deputies.

The 48-year-old was caught on bank surveillance footage wearing a bright red “lucky robbing jacket” over the a black mock turtleneck, with his head and face covered with a black hood, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Looking like “the invisible man” with sunglasses on over the black hood, he walked into his own bank in Pensacola at around 3 p.m. on Oct. 19 holding a white trash bag, according to the sheriff’s office.

He walked toward the bank teller “like a lion to an antelope (if the lion had been eating all too well and the antelope somehow got a job at a bank),” the sheriff’s office wrote. He then pulled out a gun and demanded cash, authorities said.

The teller placed the cash into the man’s white trash bag and gave it back to him before he drove off in a red Town and Country minivan, the sheriff’s office wrote.

Deputies soon caught up with the man, who they called a “hooded, giant, cardinal-looking bandit.” They pulled him over in the van and found his distinctive clothes in a nearby dumpster, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies found the gun he used under a seat of the car and the cash in a “stretched-out fanny pack,” the sheriff’s office said.

The man was arrested and charged with robbery with a firearm and displaying a firearm during a felony, according to court records. His bond was set at $75,000, according to the sheriff’s office.

“I knew as soon as I saw the Town and Country van that this fella wouldn’t be on the run long,” a Facebook user commented on the sheriff’s office post.

Though the man may have tried to be a successful bandit, “Billy the kid he was not,” the sheriff’s office wrote

Pensacola is about 200 miles west of Tallahassee.

This story was originally published October 21, 2022 at 11:06 AM with the headline "He wore his ‘lucky robbing jacket’ to rob a bank — then got caught, Florida cops say."