Bank Teller Caught Texting Bank Robber Right Before Robbery
from the inside-job dept
Criminals generally aren't known for being all that intelligent. Following a bank robbery in Arlington, Texas, police caught the bank robber, but became suspicious that it was an inside job, after realizing that the first teller who the robber went to had stayed after his shift... and was apparently seen on video furiously text-messaging on his phone immediately prior to the robbery. So they checked his phone and discovered some rather self-incriminating text messages to the bank robber right before the robbery took place. According to the court documents, the teller and the bank robber had a rather revealing conversation:"Don't forget yo sunglasses," court documents quoted Lightner as texting Franklin.According to that same report, from the local NBC affiliate, police are now investigating an earlier bank robbery that involved the same teller at a different bank, and a suspect who matches the description of the guy who robbed this bank. Apparently, in that case the teller was "taken hostage and forced into a vault."
Franklin responded: "Alrite."
Surveillance photos show the robber was wearing sunglasses.
Later, they talk in code, the FBI said in a criminal complaint against the two.
"Mom just got home," Lightner texted.
Agents said he appeared to refer to an off-duty officer who had arrived to work at the bank.
"So turn around?" Franklin asked.
"No...hurry," the teller responded.
Lightner also appeared to give Franklin a refresher on the layout of the bank and where the drive-through area was located.
"Just in case u don't remember, just go in the front and walk straight... then u will see this hallway and my closet will be to the left," Lightner is quoted as texting.
In another message, the FBI said Lightner warned about a co-worker who "screams at scary movies, so be calm."
Whatever did scammers do in the age before SMS?
Either way, it does make you wonder if they didn't realize that it was possible to find this stuff on their phones, or if they just assumed they had the whole thing planned so well that they figured the police would never bother to check the text messages.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bank robbery, texting
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Heroic Failures
The police said "Home boy"....
You can see some more in this vein on the web here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Heroic Failures
Sounds like "home boy" fits this one, too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Indeed, they should ban SMS now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Some more stories - and another contender for worst bank robbery
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Robbery Details
As for the girl that screams at horror movies, that was an inside joke. You wouldn't get it so I won't explain it to you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Robbery Details
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I have researched, and an bank is involved in 100% of bank robberies. We must outright ban banks to end the robberies. We must revert to using home vaults!
signed,
Derek J Kerton,
Alliance for American S&M
Speaking only on my own behalf.
President - www.homevault.org - DJK at www.ho-vault.org
Executive Director - www.safes.org - DJK at www.safeword.org
Senior Fellow - www.lockedupinthebedroom.org
President - Alliance for American Safety & Maintenance (S&M)
Caretaker of Behind Closed Doors on behalf of deceased (auto-asphyxiated) founder Michael Hutchence
Washington, DC
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe someone needs to come up with a way to 'insta-copyright' SMS messages. This would mean that the reports and such reporting on the story could be sued for reporting what the SMS messages said.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
FOR THE CHILDREN!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]