DEPUTIES CAPTURE BANK ROBBERY SUSPECT

DEPUTIES CAPTURE BANK ROBBERY SUSPECT

Volusia County Sheriff’s investigators made short work of a search for the robber who held up the Bank of America on Ocean Shore Boulevard in Ormond-by-the-Sea Thursday morning. Thanks in large measure to an anonymous tip, investigators nabbed the suspect on Friday -- one day after the robbery and about a mile from the scene of the crime.

Gregory Harris didn’t put up a fight or even try to deny he was robber who strolled into the bank on Thursday wearing a floppy hat and sunglasses demanding cash and claiming to have a gun. “Is this about the Bank of America?” he asked Sheriff’s investigators who pulled him over in the same gold-colored Buick seen fleeing Thursday’s robbery. “I knew you guys were gonna come for me.”

The robbery occurred at about 11 a.m. on Thursday. The suspect claimed to have a gun and lifted his shirt to reinforce the threat. The teller complied with the demands of the suspect, who made off with about $4,300 in the heist. While the suspect managed to elude capture on Thursday, his photo captured by the bank’s surveillance system was widely distributed through local news outlets. And the public exposure of the photo paid off. Friday afternoon, an anonymous tipster called Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida and pointed the finger at the 42-year-old Harris of Ormond Beach. Investigators placed Harris under surveillance and pulled him over shortly after 5 p.m. while driving his car on Ocean Shore Boulevard, about a mile north of the bank. Harris confessed to the robbery during an interview with Sheriff’s investigator Richard Graves and led deputies to the hat, shirt and sunglasses he wore during the robbery. Investigators also recovered about $1,700 of the stolen loot. Harris said he spent the rest on drugs.

Deputies charged Harris with armed robbery and grand theft and prepared Friday night to take him to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach, where he initially will be held without bond.