CLEVELAND — It was like a scene from a movie: A man stepped out of a bank with a lot of cash, and then masked men with guns got away with all the money. However, this is real life, and it happened in broad daylight at Cleveland’s Public Square.
It’s been a full year since this happened, and the victim doesn’t understand why no arrests have been made. He fears retaliation and is a victim of a violent crime, so we agreed not to use his name.
The local man told us he had recently been a victim of a house fire. So, last January, he went to Dollar Bank on Public Square to get his insurance money, which totaled $40,000.
RELATED: Man robbed after withdrawing $40,000 from bank at Public Square
COUNTING THE CASH OUT IN THE OPEN
He said he thought they would give him the cash in a private office, but it was all done out in the open, at the counter.
“And then (the teller) said, ’21, 22, 23, 24….’ He’s counting like that really loud,” said the man.
He told us that made him nervous. At that moment, he said he noticed another teller.
“She walked from behind the counter, came all the way over to where I was at,” described the man. “(She) stood behind me. Ain’t doing nothing, but she stood behind me the whole time while he was counting.”
After getting his cash, he started to leave, and he said he glanced over at the employees and the security guard inside the bank.
“They just standing there watching me,” the man told us.
MASKED, ARMED MEN JUMP OUT OF SUV
As soon as he stepped outside of the bank, he said two masked men with guns jumped out of a sliver Nissan SUV.
“‘Give me that money! Give me that money you just got! Give me that money you just got!’” the man said about what the robbers shouted at him.
He said the criminals had a problem finding the cash in his coat, so a third masked man with a gun got out of the SUV.
“He snatched one bundle and then he like snatched the other and then he said ‘We got it all!’” the man told us.
“How did you feel at that point?” we asked.
“I’m saying to myself they’re not going to allow me to live…because it’s the amount that they are taking. It’s broad daylight,” said the victim. However, they just drove off.
VICTIM: 'THEY SET MY ASS UP'
As he waited for the police to get there, he thought about the moment when the robbers found three hundred bucks in his pants pocket, but they did something unusual.
“They put it back in there. They didn’t take that,” said the man. “So, right then and there I knew what was happening.”
He said he felt they weren’t looking for the smaller amount, just the big wads of cash.
Right after the robbery, he told cops his theory.
“Somebody in the bank told somebody, and they set my ass up when I came outside,” said the man to an officer wearing a body camera.
DOLLAR BANK'S RESPONSE
The Dollar Bank location is now closed. We reached out to the company, and in a statement, it said: “On the day of the incident the Bank immediately contacted the Cleveland Police and we have been fully cooperative during their ongoing investigation. We recommend you reach out to them for further information, as this is an active police investigation.”
The police report showed that Tower City security cameras had caught what had happened. But after a year, cops have not released the video or screen grabs, photos of the people who did this. And the police are not answering a ton of our questions.
In the police report, the officer wrote, “It’s important to note that several bank customers came and went during this time making it appear that the victim was targeted.”
“Nothing, absolutely nothing. It’s heartbreaking to not hear anything,” said the victim about no new information in the case.
VICTIM & ATTORNEY ARE ASKING FOR HELP
The man’s attorney hopes that, by his client stepping forward, others will follow.
“(They) might see this and they’ll say ‘Hey, I know who did that and I don’t like them. So, I’m going to go call the police,’” said Attorney Alan Harris. “Could happen. Hopefully, it will.”
The victim said he could use all the help he could get because he couldn’t stop thinking about what happened.
“Thank God that I didn’t get killed out of it. You know, it could’ve…ended real bad,” the man said.
Some might question why take that much cash out of the bank? The man said he was skeptical of electronic transfers and wanted to surprise his wife with the money.
