Fingerprints, camera image lead to teenage bank-robbery suspect

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, November 21, 2009

Amanda Milkovits

Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK –– Perhaps he should have attended his English class.

A local 17-year-old boy skipped school on Thursday to rob a bank –– but the police said his misspelled note to the teller led to his arrest that afternoon.

Capt. Sean Collins said the teen walked into the Coastway Community Bank branch at 2089 Warwick Ave. Thursday morning and handed a note to the teller. The handwritten note, riddled with misspelled words, demanded money or “everyone will be shot,” Collins said.

The teller didn’t see a weapon, the police said, but gave the youth some money.

But the note held the youth’s fingerprints, the police said, and his image had been captured by the bank’s surveillance cameras — leading to his arrest six hours after the crime.

The boy, whose name has been withheld because he is a juvenile, was charged with first-degree robbery and is being held at the Rhode Island Training School.