Give me the money or I’ll give you a karate chop?
May 10, 2010 at 9:01 am by Mike Goodwin
The Kung Fu Bandit was no match Friday for the long arm of the law.
A 21-year-old would-be bank robber, who allegedly displayed “threatening karate-type moves” as he tried to hold up a downtown bank, was arrested virtually at the feet of Mayor Jerry Jennings, the Tulip Court and the disapproving bronze gaze of Gen. Philip Schuyler, police said.
The bizarre incident marked a rollicking — if unscripted — start to Albany’s 62nd annual Tulip Fest, the city’s landmark celebration of spring and its Dutch heritage.
Police said Jyrese Gause of 379 Orange St. walked into the manager’s office at the Citizens Bank branch at 111 Washington Ave. around 11:40 a.m. and demanded money.
When the manager walked out of his office to the teller’s window, Gause allegedly followed him out into the bank, at which point a teller — not realizing Gause was in the process of robbing the place — ordered Gause to the back of the line, said Detective James Miller, a police spokesman.
Gause then allegedly “did display threatening karate-type moves” before bolting out of the bank, having stolen nothing, and running east down Washington Avenue toward City Hall, Miller said.
The botched heist went down just as Jennings was on the steps of City Hall to pose for photos with the outgoing and incoming Tulip courts before the ceremonial scrubbing of State Street, which kicks off Tulip Festival weekend each year.
Reports of an attempted robbery crackled over police radios and drew the attention of Detective Joseph Shanahan, Jennings’ driver, and Officer James Leahy, who at 39 years on the force is the city’s longest-tenured police officer.
Jennings said he ran to the to the State Street side of the statue of Schuyler that stands in front of City Hall and, luckily, the fleeing suspect — with another officer in pursuit — ran left.
Jennings said the man ran virtually right into Shanahan and Leahy, who arrested him at gunpoint in full view of the Tulip Court and assorted people dressed in period costume as Dutch settlers.”They said, ‘Mayor, what was that about?” Jennings said. “If he turned my way, I was in trouble. Because if he did have a gun, I didn’t have one.”In fact, police said Gause, who was charged with felony attempted robbery, was unarmed.”It’s not your typical bank robber that we deal with,” Miller acknowledged.
To which Jennings added: “No one got hurt, which was good.”
Originally Posted by David Jamieson
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