Bank Teller Caught Texting Bank Robber Right Before Robbery

from the inside-job dept

Mon, Sep 27th 2010 4:11am — Mike Masnick

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.

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."

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."

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.

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Filed Under: bank robbery, texting

14 Comments

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Richard (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 4:29am

Heroic Failures
Sounds like this belongs in the book of heroic failures - along witht he robber who left is dog at the scene.

The police said "Home boy"....

You can see some more in this vein on the web here.
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abc gum, 27 Sep 2010 @ 4:30am

Obviously, it is the cell phone providers fault. This would have been prevented if they had been policing their network.
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Richard (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 4:39am

Some more stories - and another contender for worst bank robbery
here
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2010 @ 5:02am

Re:
SMS must be outlawed!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2010 @ 5:07am

Re: Heroic Failures
"Don't forget yo sunglasses," court documents quoted Lightner as texting Franklin.

Sounds like "home boy" fits this one, too.
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Kyle Lightner, 27 Sep 2010 @ 6:27am

Robbery Details
I knew the guy and was texting him about my mom. No, really. He was supposed to be headed to my house to get some stuff out of my closet. I told him not to forget his sunglasses because he told me he had gone in for an eye exam and had his eyes dilated.

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.
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Whisk33, 27 Sep 2010 @ 6:31am

Re: Robbery Details
I lol'd
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Overcast (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 7:33am

Re:
Obviously, it is the cell phone providers fault. This would have been prevented if they had been policing their network.

Indeed, they should ban SMS now.
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Jesse, 27 Sep 2010 @ 7:34am

Cell phones cause bank robberies! Ban cell phones!
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 7:41am

SMS makes people rob banks, just like Craigslist invented prostitution and child porn. They must be banned now.
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Overcast (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 8:15am

Actually, maybe they should ban banks too. After all; if the banks wasn't there - these people wouldn't have been tempted to rob it!!

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.
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Ryan Diederich, 27 Sep 2010 @ 10:06am

FOR THE CHILDREN!
Someone call the CT congress (they are OH so good at these things). We need to ban cell phones and private communication right now, think of the children!
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Derek Kerton (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 11:28am

Re:
Banks make people rob banks!!

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
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BearGriz72 (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 8:54pm

Re: Re:
ROFLMAO! +10 Epic Hilarity.
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