LADY LAKE, Fla. \u2013 Police apparently didn\u2019t believe a bank robbery suspect\u2019s story that the money in his wallet had come from gambling at a casino.<\/p>\n
Brandon Jerome Hooks, 33, of Leesburg, was charged Sunday with robbery after Leesburg police said they determined he was the man who held up a Wells Fargo in Lady Lake the day before.<\/p>\n
According to an arrest affidavit, an unknown man walked into the U.S. Highway 441 bank in the 13000 block in Sumter County on Saturday, wearing a white stripe polo shirt and khaki pants. He reportedly passed a teller a note that stated \u201cI need bank 20,000 cash robbery.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teller told police she was \u201cshocked\u201d and gave the suspect about $3,000.<\/p>\n
The suspect, who never showed a weapon, then fled the bank. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office later distributed a surveillance photo of the suspect. Leesburg police on Sunday received a call of a “suspicious” person whose face matched the description of the suspect — in the area of Walgreens on Picciola Road.<\/p>\n
The affidavit adds police eventually confronted the man, later identified as Hooks, in the nearby parking lot of Harbor Freight and during a search found $2,180 in his wallet. Hooks apparently had checked into a Best Western hotel in Leesburg and told officers he won the money shooting dice and playing poker at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.<\/p>\n
However, police then searched Hook\u2019s 2001 Buick Regal in the nearby Wal-Mart parking lot and said they found clothes inside that matched that of what the bank robbery suspect was wearing and\u00a0arrested him.<\/p>\n
Hooks was remained in the Lake County jail Monday afternoon in lieu of $10,000 bail.