Seagrove bank robbery

**NotDeadYet** · 03-18-2009, 11:35 AM

Cops everywhere when I went to Publix - WJHG is reporting the SunTrust was robbed, and the armed suspect fled into the woods.

**Lynnie** · 03-18-2009, 11:41 AM

Yikes - crime on 30-A!

**scooterbug44** · 03-18-2009, 11:45 AM

I wondered what happened - a cop car flew by the house w/ sirens blaring - never seen them drive that fast on 30-A before!

**ShallowsNole** · 03-18-2009, 02:59 PM

The bank employees and the surrounding businesses are in my prayers. Even if nobody was injured, that's a very scary thing to go through.

I thought I heard the chopper go up a little while ago, but honestly I can't tell anything with the construction on 331 making the building shake.

**AAbsolute** · 03-18-2009, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by ShallowsNole

The bank employees and the surrounding businesses are in my prayers. Even if nobody was injured, that's a very scary thing to go through.

I thought I heard the chopper go up a little while ago, but honestly I can't tell anything with the construction on 331 making the building shake.

That's interesting that you brought up the chopper. I saw it cruising low down 30A like it was doing visual and I didn't put two and two together. My wife was out at Bay with a classroom full of aware kindergarten students hangin' out with the lights off.

**jessifunn** · 03-18-2009, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by AAbsolute

My wife was out at Bay with a classroom full of aware kindergarten students hangin' out with the lights off.

why do they sit with the lights off?

**NoHall** · 03-18-2009, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by jessifunn

why do they sit with the lights off?

All the better to hide from the boogeymen, my dear.

The SOP in my classroom (which is printed in huge detail on a tiny card in my ID badge) is to close the doors, turn off the lights, get the students as far away and out of sight of the doors and windows as possible, and to not make a sound. I have 8 1/2 x 11 laminated cards to put in the glass on the door. The yellow one means that the room is locked down, all students are accounted for and none are injured. The red ones mean that someone is injured. Absence of a card in the window during lockdown means that security should assume we are dead or gravely injured.

In addition to this procedure, we keep the classroom doors locked all the time. I open them at the beginning and end of the class, but I close and lock them at the tardy bugle. Inconvenient, but I don't worry about any of us being attacked!

**stellala** · 03-18-2009, 10:13 PM

Bank Robbers are dumb!

Bank robber suspect ID'd by demand note

Comments 12 | Recommend 0

March 18, 2009 - 1:45 PM
Andrew Gant and Kim White
Daily News
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }WATERCOLOR - A man who said he was armed robbed a SunTrust Bank in South Walton County on Wednesday morning, but police caught up with him hours later.

Thomas Banno's demand note, investigators said, was written on the back of an old receipt that identified him.

The holdup occurred about 10:30 a.m. at the bank near the corner of County Road 395 and Lake Forest Drive at Watercolor.

Banno, 40, of Santa Rosa Beach, said he was armed, said Tammy Godwin, executive assistant to Sheriff Mike Adkinson, but "no one in the building actually saw the weapon, so we have to believe what he told us. I do know there were no injuries involved."

He had dropped off his girlfriend at a Publix grocery store and then parked his car behind it, according to the Sheriff's Office. Then he walked to the bank.

Godwin said she did not know whether there were any customers in the bank at the time. She would not release any other details, but the Sheriff's Office said it recovered a "large sum of cash."

A sheet of paper taped to bank's glass door early Wednesday afternoon said the business was closed "due to an emergency" and would reopen at 2 p.m.

Meanwhile, a helicopter and search dogs helped look for a suspect.

By 3 p.m., Panama City police had arrested Banno on an outstanding worthless check warrant and contacted the Sheriff's Office.

He matched the information on the robbery note. Walton County deputies went to Panama City, took Banno into custody and charged him with felony bank robbery.

He was being held Wednesday night at the Walton County Jail.

**30A Skunkape** · 03-18-2009, 10:38 PM

I think crystal meth clouds one's sensibility.

**Miss Kitty** · 03-19-2009, 04:52 AM

Maybe all the banks should jsut add a drive through robbery lane. It's only going to get worse. It has here in the Big D.

**Teresa** · 03-19-2009, 06:23 AM

yesterday during lunch at Fabrice, we overheard people talking about a robbery on 395 near publix - it had just happened and some of the lunch crowd had gotten stuck in traffic briefly. it was so strange hearing about something like that right here in SoWal.

**John R** · 03-19-2009, 06:25 AM

Caution, genius at work...

Thomas Banno's demand note, investigators said, was written on the back of an old receipt that identified him

**Jdarg** · 03-19-2009, 06:29 AM

I was at Publix when it happened!

**Teresa** · 03-19-2009, 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by jdarg

I was at Publix when it happened!

well, of course. we're always at publix. can't believe I wasn't.

**Bobby J** · 03-19-2009, 08:23 AM

What a well thought out plan...

**ShallowsNole** · 03-19-2009, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Tootsie

yesterday during lunch at Fabrice, we overheard people talking about a robbery on 395 near publix - it had just happened and some of the lunch crowd had gotten stuck in traffic briefly. it was so strange hearing about something like that right here in SoWal.

Not the first bank robbery in SoWal...the old First Federal at Sandestin got hit TWICE. Once just before I got transferred there, and the second time, about a year after I left. Both would be over 15 years ago now.

And you'd be amazed at what all goes on, right here in SoWal. Please be sure to make sure your vehicles are locked at night, and that your home is locked all of the time - and don't leave valuable stuff in the back of Daddy-O's truck

**30abob** · 03-19-2009, 12:39 PM

I made a extremely small deposit in my wife's "mad" money account there at 10 AM yesterday morning. I just missed being an eye witness to the next edition of Dumb Crook News!