Bank robbery foiled when teller can’t read stickup note
A British man allegedly botched a
bank robbery because of a handwritten stickup note that was so sloppy the
teller couldn’t read it.
That would-be robbery was part of
a short-lived spree in East Sussex by 67-year-old Alan Slattery that included a
second failed stickup and one successful theft of $3,300, Sussex Police said in
a news release Wednesday.
The retiree tried to rob the
Nationwide Building Society on the morning of March 18 by slipping a note to
the teller – but he hightailed it out of there with no cash when the teller
couldn’t make out the writing, the release said.
Only after he was gone did staff
make out that the note said "your screen won’t stop what I’ve got just
hand over the 10s and 20s think about the customer’s (sic)."
The goofy crime was reminiscent
of a scene from the 1969 comedy film "Take the Money and Run," which
shows a bank robbery that goes wrong when the would-be robber argues with
tellers, a vice president and others about whether his stickup note says
"gun" or "gub."
But Slattery kept at it after his
first stickup went south, and on March 26 he slipped a note to a teller at
Nationwide Building Society who was able to read it – and turned over about
$3,300 cash, police stated.
Surveillance footage showed
Slattery boarding a bus afterward, and he was identified through the bus
company by the photo on his pass, according to police.
Slattery struck out one last time
before police charged him, though – this time at a NatWest bank on April 1, the
release said. He once again used a note, but this time the teller pushed back
and scared off Slattery who left the bank without taking anything, according to
police.
Police arrested Slattery walking
near his home later for robbery and attempted robbery, police stated. In his
house, they found "sticky labels" that matched one of his stickup
notes, the statement said.
"These incidents caused fear
and distress to both the employees working in the banks and to the wider
public," Detective Constable Jay Fair said in a statement.
"I’d like to thank all the
victims and witnesses who supported our investigation, and I’m pleased to see
the severity of the offenses reflected in the sentence handed out by the
court."
Callow
Callow means “lacking adult sophistication.” Often used to describe a young person who does not have much experience and does not know how to behave like an adult. Callow comes from calu, a word that meant "bald" in Middle English and Old English. By the 17th century, callow had come to mean "without feathers" and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term was also used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense.
A remarakable story
This is a remarkable story. In
2017, a homeless man named Joshua Spriestersbach was standing in a long line
outside a Honolulu shelter. It was a miserably hot day, and Spriestersbach
hadn’t eaten in several days. Suddenly he fainted. The police were called, and
after they had roused him awake, Spriestersbach assumed he was being arrested
for sleeping on the sidewalk where he had passed out.
Spriestersbach, left and Castleberry, right
What happened next is odd. One of the cops who knew another homeless man named Thomas Castleberry mistook Spriestersbach for Castleberry and arrested him on an outstanding warrant for violating probation in a 2006 drug case.Spriestersbach and Castleberry
had never met, nor did Spriestersbach ever claim to be Castleberry, although
the arresting police officers lied and said he did. The chances that recently revived from the
sidewalk Spriestersbach could have come
up with an alias like Thomas Castleberry are remarkable.
That was the start of a two-year
nightmare. Spriestersbach was locked up in a state mental hospital and forced
to take psychiatric drugs and the more that Spriestersbach insisted he wasn’t
Castleberry, the more he was determined to be delusional and psychotic by the
hospital staff who kept him heavily medicated.
Finally, a young psychiatrist
listened to Spriestersbach and determined he might be telling the truth. The
psychiatrist called the police and had them come to the hospital and take
Spriestersbach fingerprints and photograph and compare to their files. Sure
enough, they were holding the wrong man. The real Castleberry was in prison in
Alaska.
The hospital ad the police held
an emergency meeting and decided to secretly release Spriestersbach, who had a
series of mental health issues. He was returned to the streets without an
explanation, cash, or a place to stay.
A homeless shelter contacted his
family, who took Spriestersbach to live with his sister on a ten-acre property
in Vermont, which, Spriestersbach, understandably, refuses to leave.
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
We purchased Broadway tickets a few days ago to see a December performance of To Kill a Mockingbird, which led me to think about novels that have become plays or musicals.
Plenty of novels inspire movie adaptations, but fewer such books are turned into plays — with one reason being that there are of course more major films made than major plays staged. Also, certain elements are needed for a novel-to-play transition to have a chance to work: It helps if the novels are well-known, well-written, filled with great dialogue, dramatic, plot-oriented, and graced with memorable protagonists; and it also helps if theatrical productions feature high-profile actresses and actors. Some luck doesn’t hurt, either.
The acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird production, which will reopen this fall along with various other Broadway plays after the long COVID shutdown, first featured movie notable Jeff Daniels as attorney Atticus Finch. Daniels will return to that role when the play resumes October 5, and is scheduled to stay until January 2. Harper Lee’s iconic novel had previously been performed as a play for several decades in Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama — an example of how a number of fiction books have inspired local or regional theater productions.
More...
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NYCPlaywrights" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nycplaywrights_group+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nycplaywrights_group/efb95845-57d0-4173-8a75-5dc8dc8df721n%40googlegroups.com.