The ‘certainly bizarre’ case of the robot-mask-wearing Georgia bank robbery suspect
The strange case of a robot-masked woman in a flower-print dress and sandals who the cops in Warner Robins say strode into a Wells Fargo branch there and tried to rob the place Thursday remains a mystery in some ways.
The apparently unarmed alleged bandit, Abigail Teresa Lane, was said to have argued with tellers inside the 2714 Watson Blvd. bank and then left empty-handed after declaring, “This is a stickup, this is a robbery. Get down or else.”
Lane, 37, was spotted by the police in a car parked at a nearby Walmart not far from Carl Vinson Parkway minutes after the failed 11:30 a.m. heist.
She was jailed on charges that included attempted robbery.
Lane, who lives in Warner Robins, has past ties to Jones County and to Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu. Records show that she filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2012. She appears to have no serious criminal history in Georgia.
“I don’t know what really prompted her to do this,” Warner Robins Police Chief John Wagner said Friday.
Lane seemed to have fussed at bank employees either about her own money being stolen or about her stealing money, the chief said.
The incident was “certainly bizarre,” he said. “No doubt about that.”
The mask that Lane allegedly wore, which police said was found in her car, was described by Wagner as a Halloween mask.
“I don’ t know what it is,” he said, “but it was a robot-looking mask.”