Elderly woman, 78, arrested after pulling off her third bank heist
An elderly woman has been arrested for robbing a bank – for the third time.
Real-life Bonnie Clyde, Bonnie Gooch, 78, was cuffed and charged on Wednesday afternoon after allegedly robbing a bank in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.
But being told to put her hands up is all just routine to Gooch, who has been accused three times of pulling a bank heist.
Pleasant Hill Police Department responded to reports of a bank robbery at around 3.20pm.
Officers spotted a car matching the description they were given by Goppert Financial Bank staff only a few hundred yards away from the scene.
They found Gooch in the front seat alongside evidence that tied her to the crime, which she carried out wearing a face mask, sunglasses and plastic gloves.
Pleasant Hill Police Chief Thomas Wright told Fox 4: ‘Obviously it was a tense situation.
‘But when the hands of an elderly woman come out of the car and that is who is driving the suspect vehicle, it’s a little shocking.’
Wright told the broadcaster the force will be evaluating whether the pensioner needs any support from social services as her case moves ahead.
Pleasant Hill Missouri Police Department obtained said on Thursday: ‘Today, 78-year-old Bonnie Gooch, of Pleasant Hill, was charged by the Cass County Prosecutors Office with stealing or attempted stealing from a Financial Institution, related to the April 5th bank robbery at Goppert Bank.’
Cass County prosecutors set her bond at $25,000 (£20,100) ‘cash only’. She remains in custody.
The septuagenarian has quite the rap sheet. Gooch was arrested three years ago for a bank robbery in Lee’s Summit, according to court documents obtained by Fox 4.
Gooch was, at the time, ‘off her rocker’ and had left the house ‘angry, saying she was going to rob a bank’, her son said, according to the document.
She was charged with stealing and was convicted – her prison sentence was suspended and was ordered to have supervised probation until November 2021.
In both this and Wednesday’s theft, Gooch slid a note to bank tellers, the police said.
But Gooch is certainly a veteran – she was found guilty of bank robbery in 1977 in California, making her around 32 years old.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.