CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A suspect is in custody after robbing a bank, indicating to an employee that he had an explosive device.
Friday, May 24 around 2:25 p.m. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers, along with the CMPD Helicopter and K-9 Units, responded to a bank robbery at the PNC Bank located at 1000 East Boulevard.
CMPD said the initial investigation revealed that a male suspect had entered the bank and approached an employee, indicating he had a bomb. He showed the employee a device and demanded money.
Once he received cash from the bank he fled the scene on foot.
The Helicopter Unit located the suspect nearby and called in his location. Two Providence Division Officers apprehended the suspect without incident at the Shell gas station at the intersection of East Boulevard and Kenilworth Road.
He was brought CMPD headquarters, interviewed by detectives with the armed robbery unit and confessed to committing the robbery.
He informed the detectives that the device he had used to rob the bank was not actually a bomb and told them where he hid it after the robbery.
The CMPD Bomb Squad and a K-9 Team located the item and determined it was not an explosive device -- instead, it had been made to look like a bomb.
Detectives charged Rhett Ingram, 58, with common law robbery in connection with this case.
Anyone with information about these cases or any other case is asked to call 911 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.