A man robbed a Huntington Bank on North High Street, “apparently to buy chocolates for his sweetie” for Valentine’s Day, according to the FBI.
The suspect, a white male in his 30s, about 5-foot-10, walked into the Huntington Bank branch located at 1928 N. High St. on Monday morning, wearing a black, striped sweatshirt with the hood up. He claimed to have a firearm, according to the FBI.
Dubbed the “wrong order robber” by the FBI’s report, the suspect lowered his hood and requested cash from a bank teller. When the man removed his hood, security cameras captured a shot of his face.
“Although no weapon was observed, the teller began to remove money from his drawer when apparently the love-struck bandit, realizing he had goofed up the order on his ‘robbery checklist,’ put the hood back up on his head,” the FBI report said.
The man was described in the report as having a “medium build, with balding, buzzed brown hair, a moustache … blue jeans and white tennis shoes.”
Huntington Bank representatives and the Columbus Police Department had no immediate comment late Monday morning.
Ohio State students said they did not know about the robbery and that it does not faze them.
“I feel like it’s kind of inevitable,” said Kristina Keck, a fourth-year in communication, referring to bank robberies. “Honestly, it doesn’t affect me too much.”
Alexandria Thomas, a first-year in biology, said the robbery wouldn’t deter her from banking with Huntington, although she uses U.S. Bank in the Ohio Union.
“I’ll risk the crime for the convenience,” she said.
David Beesom, a fourth-year in political science and criminology, said college campuses have high crime rates so the robbery doesn’t surprise or bother him.
This bank robbery is the sixth central Ohio bank robbery of the year, according to the FBI report, and the second to occur around OSU’s campus since October.
Sylvete P. Gilbert, the alleged “church lady bandit,” was indicted in connection with 12 robberies in Columbus, including one at the U.S. Bank branch at the Union on Oct. 20. Gilbert, 46, was arrested Dec. 23 after robbing a Fifth Third Bank on Nationwide Boulevard — her 12th suspected Columbus robbery in the past four years. Gilbert allegedly robbed 11 banks and one hotel, the Hampton Inn at 2093 S. Hamilton Road.
Faced with 12 counts of second-degree felony robbery and 12 counts of third-degree felony robbery, Gilbert could spend the rest of her life in prison, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien told The Lantern following Gilbert’s arrest in January.
The FBI requests that anyone with information about the Huntington Bank robbery contact the Columbus Police Robbery Squad at 614-645-4665 or the FBI at 614-865-2543.
Sarah Stemen and Katie Higgins contributed to this story.
