The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said it arrested a 43-year-old man who feebly tried to rob a Stock Island bank Friday while wearing a pair of shorts on his head.
Eli Escalera walked into the First State Bank at 5450 MacDonald Avenue at 12:30 p.m. with the shorts on his head and handed a bank teller a note which said “give me what are 20s and 50s,” the sheriff’s office said.
The manager was watching nearby, as the teller asked Escalera, “What do you want?” He then said “never mind” and left the bank, according to the sheriff’s office.
After the manager called a detective, deputies began looking “for a Hispanic male wearing a blue shirt, dark-colored cargo pants, with scars on his face,” the sheriff’s office said. As Deputy Matt Dowling approached 5th Street and MacDonald Avenue, he looked down 5th Street and saw a man fitting the suspect’s description who was taking off a pair of dark-colored pants.
After seeing Dowling, the man jumped on his bike and biked away, but he was caught near 5th Street and 3rd Avenue – two long blocks from MacDonald – and a witness promptly identified the man, Escalera, as the would-be bank robber, the sheriff’s office said.
He was charged with robbery and booked into jail, the sheriff’s office added.
