78-Year-Old Woman Allegedly Passed Teller Note Saying ‘I Didn’t Mean to Scare You’ During Bank Robbery

A 78-year-old woman is alleged to have slid a note to a teller during her third reported bank robbery attempt that read, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The woman, identified in a report from the Associated Press as Bonnie Gooch, was in the middle of an alleged would-be heist at the Goppert Financial Bank in Pleasant Hill, Missouri when she shared the note with the teller. Following the alleged heist attempt on April 5, Gooch was later arrested.

According to a separate report from regional outlet the Kansas City Star, Gooch is said to have approached the teller and passed them a note in which she said she needed “13,000 small bills.” In the same note, Gooch offered a “thank you” and an apology for the potentially frightening nature of the alleged crime. Upon her eventual arrest in a nearby veterinarian’s office parking lot, police claim, Gooch “smelled strongly of alcohol.”

Previously, Gooch saw convictions in two separate bank robbery cases: one in California in 1977, as well as one in the Kansas City area in 2020. For the most recent alleged heist effort, Gooch is confirmed to have been placed behind bars on a bond of $25,000. She’s been charged with stealing or attempting to steal from a financial institution. As of last Thursday, she was still in custody.

Complex has reached out to a local court official, as well as to the Pleasant Hill Police Department, for additional comment on this case. This story may be updated.