Ex-deputy slips note to teller saying she has a gun, then robs bank, FL cops say
The Ocala Police Department said officers tracked down 40-year-old Christina Gates Thagard 11 minutes after the reported robbery and arrested her.
According to an arrest affidavit, the morning of May 3, a person wearing a Jack Skeleton hoodie and a face mask was seen on surveillance footage walking into a TD Bank.
Police said that person gave a teller a note that said, 'This is a Robbery, I have a gun and will shoot if any alarms or dye packs are (enclosed). Fill this bag with ... at least 50K. Big bills only. Wait 2 mins to call Police.'
The suspect had white acrylic nails on three fingers on her right hand and wore a glove on her left hand, police said.
She made out with a little over $5,000 and fled, according to police.
Footage shared by the police department showed Thagard surrendering to law enforcement when cops came up behind her car at a stoplight. Investigators said they found items used during the robbery, including a purse filled with money, a blue glove, a medical mask and the Jack Skeleton hoodie.
Thagard told investigators that she had plans to go shopping for clothes that morning and stopped by a friend's house beforehand, then she let him and another woman borrow her car to run an errand while she waited at the house, according to the report.
She said they came back and 'were acting strange,' then she got back in her car and left, police said. She said she found some of the items reportedly used in the robbery but didn't think anything of it, since her car was often messy with her kids' things, according to police.
Thagard denied carrying out the robbery and said she didn't know why law enforcement had stopped her.
Investigators wrote in the report they didn't recover a gun but believed Thagard was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
She was charged with robbery with a firearm, records show.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office confirmed Thagard was a former deputy but hadn't been with the agency since 2016.
Ocala is about an 80-mile drive northwest from Orlando.
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