The 33-year-old Westside woman said she was being forced to rob the SunTrust Bank on South Lane Avenue by three people outside in a red SUV, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
But after an FBI agent responded to the bank’s alarm shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday and stopped the SUV as employees locked the woman inside, responding officers learned only one of them had apparently been involved in the failed bank robbery, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Amanda R. Chadwell of Roosevelt Boulevard was arrested on a charge of strong arm robbery, according to jail records.
Chadwell walked into the bank and sat down in the waiting area, then was invited to an employee’s desk, the report said. She asked for paper and pen, then wrote that she was being forced to rob the bank.
The employee pushed the panic alarm button and locked the doors, passing on information about the three people in the SUV to a police dispatcher, the Sheriff’s Office said.
An FBI agent driving nearby heard the call on his police radio, saw the SUV trying to leave and stopped it with two officers. The trio inside were taken into custody, as was the woman in the bank. But only Chadwell was arrested after investigators determined the other three were not involved, her arrest report said. The report did not say whether she knew them or randomly chose them.
No weapon was shown in the bank or found on the woman, the Sheriff’s Office said. There were five employees and six customers inside when the incident occurred.