VERO BEACH — A Fort Pierce man may have bungled a Beachland Boulevard bank robbery, but he can certainly tell a tall tale, claiming a man with a thick accent threatened to kill his family if he didn’t start robbing banks for him.
Michael George Anderson, 50, who was wearing a hard hat, work shirt, khaki pants and construction boots when he robbed the PNC Bank on Beachland two weeks ago, was arrested with the help of a bank customer who hit the suspect with his pickup truck and then chased after him with a long painter’s pole, injuring him and slowing him down.
Anderson still managed to escape in his own pickup truck before finally being stopped by a Vero Beach police officer on Gardenia Lane on Aug. 30.
“It was me. This is my second one. All the cash is in my pocket,” Anderson told Officer Anna Carden after he hopped from his pickup.
Carden then pulled a wad of $100 bills from Anderson’s left pocket.
Anderson then began telling police a convoluted story apparently in the hopes of avoiding serious jail time for two bank robberies – the PNC Bank heist as well as a robbery of the SunTrust Bank at Miracle Mile on Aug. 1.
“I had no choice, this man said he was going to kill my family if I didn’t do it,” Anderson told Carden.
Anderson claimed that in July, a man offered him a ride on U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce. He told police that as soon as he got into the vehicle, the man – whom he described as a dark skinned Hispanic with a strong Portuguese or Arabic accent – pulled a gun on him and threatened to kill Anderson’s family, which he apparently knew a great deal about, if Anderson didn’t follow his orders.
Anderson claimed the mystery man drew a beard on his face with a pencil and told him what to wear and exactly how much to steal from the SunTrust Bank.
After the first job, Anderson claimed the man met him at his son’s bus stop and again brandished a gun, this time pointing it at the son. The man told him that if he did not rob a second bank – this time upping the ante from the $7,000 heist at SunTrust to $10,000 at the next bank – he would kill his son.
So just before 10 a.m. on Aug. 30, Anderson went into the PNC Bank on Beachland and passed a poorly written note to the teller.
“Your Securety (sic) Systom (sic) is being monitored. Do not Alarm (sic) anyone. My friend has a Bomb in here. It will be set off if he see’s (sic) any alarms. Count out $10,000 one hundred dollar bills only. Hand it to me. Then excuse yourself to the restroom for 10 minutes.”
Customer Rick Reynolds watched the robbery unfold from the drive-through window. He said he knew something wasn’t right when the usually friendly faces of the tellers didn’t greet him immediately as they usually do.
“It was weird,” said Reynolds, of Rick Reynolds Painting. “He (Anderson) just stood there looking like a zombie. And I’m like, wait … something is wrong.”
Reynolds said someone eventually did come to the window and take his deposit but she didn’t say a word, laid the deposit on the counter and walked away. Reynolds said he then watched another teller and a bank manager enter the safe before handing the money to Anderson.
Then it clicked: The hard hat-wearing, zombie-like man was robbing the bank.
Reynolds said he knew he had to do something.
As Anderson raced from the bank with a pocket full of cash, Reynolds chased him, hitting him at about 10 miles an hour with his pickup truck.
Witnesses told police that as Anderson was limping toward his own truck parked on Azalea Lane, Reynolds then came after him with a four-foot long painting pole.
The witness said the two wrestled before Anderson was able to get away, albeit briefly, in his own red pickup before he hobbled out of his truck at the sight of the police and started spouting his tell-all confession.
“I’m as much of a victim in this as anyone else,” Anderson told the officer.
He then asked law enforcement officers to check on his wife, his parents and his children who were at school.
“Please don’t think bad of me,” Anderson said. “I had to do this. He made me rob banks. He made me rob the one across the bridge too.”
When police brought the PNC Bank teller over to identify Anderson as the robber, Anderson even urged her on.
“I’m him, ma’am,” he said offering one last statement to the police. “Would you tell the teller and everyone at the bank that I’m very sorry that I did this to them?”
Vero Beach Police Lt. Kevin Martin said detectives aren’t buying Anderson’s story.
“There is no evidence that anyone else was involved,” Martin said. “But we’ve been around this block once or twice before.”
