Wiseass Bank Robber Left Taunting Message For Cops Inside Phony Stuffed Animal Bomb

During a robbery last year at a Bank of Southern Connecticut branch, a man placed a stuffed animal with a mobile phone taped to it on the teller’s counter and handed over a piece of paper to a bank employee.

“Give me all your money or I’ll blow this place off the map. Give me 100s and 50s,” read the handwritten note. The teller complied, handing over $2840.

The robber, seen in the above surveillance photo, departed the Branford bank, but left behind what appeared to be a cuddly explosive device. So cops and FBI agents summoned an emergency services unit to examine--and possibly dismantle--a bomb. Investigators were relieved to find that the stuffed animal and the phone did not contain any explosives.

But as they examined the phone--a black and silver Samsung--investigators discovered that the bank robber left them a hidden, taunting message.

As described in an FBI affidavit filed 10 days ago in U.S. District Court, after the back of the Samsung (pictured in the evidence photo at left) was removed, agents found a “small white piece of paper with the word 'BOOM' written on it.”

The unknown subject (or “UNSUB” in bureau parlance) remains at large.