Crime & Safety
Desperate Groom Goes from Bible College to Bank Stickup Man
A Michigan man was sentenced to federal prison after admitting to conspiring to rob a bank ATM as his bank-teller girlfriend watched helplessly from inside. He needed money to buy her an engagement ring, he said.
They just don’t write love stories like they used to.
In the storybook version of romance, the handsome prince doesn't drive the getaway car as his buddy holds a bank employee restocking an automatic teller machine at gunpoint so he can get enough cash to buy a ring for a surprise Valentine’s Day proposal.
In the storybook version, the handsome prince doesn’t entice his bank-teller fiancee into spilling the details of when the ATM machine is stocked, then drive all night to get to the bank at exactly the right moment.
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After he and his buddy arm themselves with pellet guns that resemble semi-automatic pistols, the prince doesn’t watch from yards away as his princess parks her car and walks into the bank, and he doesn't act as if he is hundreds of miles away when she calls to say good morning.
As she watches helplessly and sends her prince frightened text messages as the crime is going down, he doesn’t flee the scene, only to hop a Greyhound bus so he can sweep in prince-like to console his traumatized bride to be and stash his share of the take in her family's home.
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But that’s the bizarre story behind the plan federal prosecutors said Ramsey Fakhouri, 22, of Troy, MI, hatched with his buddy, Alexander Gerth, 18, also of Troy to get the $13,000 to buy the ring for his girlfriend, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports,
The two had met a couple of years before at Indiana Bible College.
Fakhouri was sentenced Friday to six and a half years in federal prison for his role in the Feb. 14 heist at a Highland, IL, bank. The pair got away with $25,780.
Fakhouri surrendered on the Sunday after Valentine’s Day after admitting to his girlfriend, whose name has not been released and who was not charged in the crime.
The jig was reportedly up when she confronted him with surveillance photos sent in a text message that showed him and Gerth at a Walmart store near the bank that had been robbed, The Detroit News said.
Gerth’s girlfriend also reportedly recognized him from the photos on a social media site, the Alton (IL) Telegraph reports.
When Gerth was arrested in Michigan on Feb. 17, he had told authorities he had spent $6,200 of the money on four guns at a sporting goods store, the Post-Dispatch said. He also bought two iPads, according to The Macomb Daily
He pled guilty and his sentencing is pending.Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.