Sheriff's Office nabs homeless suspect in Tuesday BB&T bank robbery
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 - 11:01pm
Alphus Dunlow Jr.
Arrested was Robert , 42, a homeless man.
According to the arrest report, Dunlow entered the bank at 4:45 p.m. and told a teller to put money in a gray bag he brought with him. She told him, "Your're kidding," but he shoved the bag toward the teller and told her to put money in it, and told her not to touch any buttons as he became more insistent.
She put the money in the bag, and he left the store and fled west in a white Ford F150 truck on State Road 44. An alert deputy spotted the truck and turned on his overhead lights and siren in pursuit of the truck as it turned northbound onto Leona. At a wooded area on Leona, the truck went off road - and action that disabled the truck.
The arrest report says Dunlow got out of the truck and fled northwest as a passenger in the truck got out of the vehicle and was taken into custody. A short search with a CCSO K-9 turned up Dunlow's whereabouts, and he was taken into custody. Dunlow was quick to tell deputies the passenger wasn't involved in the robbery, nor did the passenger, a male, know what was going to happen.
Two witnesses to the robbery later identified Dunlow as the robber, and he was taken to the county jail. After being read his rights, the arrest report says Dunlow told deputies he had been on a three-day drug binge, and that he was tired of living on the streets. He said he wanted to go to federal prison because it was "easier," because BB&T was FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insured.
Dunlow is also said to have told deputies he had gone to four banks, and that BB&T was the only one that was open. He added that he had dropped the passenger off at Lowe's in Inverness before going in search of a bank.
Dunlow was charged with robbery and fleeing and eluding, and his bond was set at $11,000.
The passenger in the truck was not charged, and the CCSO said the majority of the money taken was recovered.
