Unmasked! Police arrest 28-year-old black suspect who disguised himself as an elderly white man with a realistic mask during an armed bank robbery

12 Mar, 2015 by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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Points for craftiness on the mask… demerits for being dumb enough to leave the van and evidence lying around where it could be found. Evidently his partner in crime was not as smart as Benoit was. She was caught in the van with the mask and the bag used to rob the bank. She was also nailed on calling in a bogus bomb threat to divert attention from the robbery. Benoit fled to Texas, leaving Milandra literally holding the bag. But police tracked him down and after a brief chase, took him in. Those stupid details get ’em every single time.

From The Daily Mail:

Police in North Carolina have spent the past three months searching for an elderly Caucasian bank robber, but instead found a 28-year-old African-American suspect with a penchant for disguise.

Benoit Constant, of Maryland, was arrested in Texas during a traffic stop and identified as a suspect in the robbery of a bank in Cornelius, North Carolina, back in December.

Police say Constant, who is black, wore a lifelike mask during the heist that made him look like an elderly white man.

Constant is facing charges of robbery with a dangerous weapon, making a false bomb threat, evading arrest and failure to identify. He is being held on $70,000 bond.

Benoit Constant is suspected of robbing the Carolinas Telco Federal Credit Union in Cornelius on December 29, reported WCNC.

Surveillance video from inside the bank showed a white man in dark sunglasses, a baseball cap and blue gloves pointing a handgun at a bank teller with one hand while holding a bag for the cash in the other.

During the heist, someone also called in a false bomb threat to the Lake Norman YMCA on the other side of town, in what investigators believe was a diversion created by Constant’s accomplice to draw police away from the credit union.

CCTV cameras captured images of the same silver van with a Delaware registration near the targeted bank and the YMCA, which officials later tracked down to Maryland about a week after the robbery.

Constant’s alleged partner in crime, Milandra Constant, was behind the wheel of the vehicle. Inside, police found a lifelike mask resembling the bank robber and the striped bag seen in the surveillance footage, according to WSOC-TV.

At around 11.30am on Sunday, Benoit Constant was traveling southbound on US-28 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when state troopers stopped his Lexus for a traffic violation.

Constant initially gave the troopers a fake name, but when they ran his plates, they found out that the motorist was wanted in North Carolina on robbery charges.

The 28-year-old man bolted out of the car and tried to flee on foot but was quickly apprehended in a residential neighborhood.

The suspected bank robber is currently awaiting extradition to North Carolina to face charges in connection to the December heist.

Milandra Constant, the man’s alleged accomplice, has been charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and making a false bomb threat.

Here’s a hint… if you have just robbed a bank, don’t commit ANY traffic violations. What a couple of dingbats. Both of these morons are rightfully on their way to the hoosegow. Have you people ever heard of security cameras? Sounds like they didn’t plan well at all. And they absolutely didn’t conduct any reconnaissance. They had a good mask and figured that’s all they needed along with the distraction. No get-away plan, no cleanup plan, no discreet plan – just rob and go. Now they’ll pay the price for being criminals and for being stupid. Thank goodness most criminals only have two brain cells.