Police in an Ohio township say a 74-year-old suspected bank robber could have fallen victim to online scammers.
Ann Mayers was arrested for robbing a credit union at gunpoint in Fairfield Township, Ohio, on April 19.
Surveillance video caught the 74-year-old walking into the AurGroup Credit Union with a handgun and demanding money from employees. She left in her 2014 Hyundai Elantra with $500.
It didn’t take long for authorities to identify and locate her after reviewing surveillance images and video.
They arrived at her home in the nearby town of Hamilton just hours after she robbed the bank. Detectives found the gun inside her car and recovered the money she took.
As soon as police took her into custody, she confessed to the crime, which was caught on one officer’s bodycam video.
“I did whatever you’re here for,” Mayers said.
“What would that be?” one officer asked.
“Robbery,” Mayers answered.
While Mayers admitted guilty, detectives think her case might be connected to a scam.
Detectives spoke with family members who said Mayers told them about robbing banks just days before she robbed the credit union, but no one took her seriously. Police also learned that Mayers was weathering some financial hardships and was sending money to an “unidentified individual,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.
“In that aspect, some may see her as a ‘victim.’ Unfortunately, Ann chose to victimize several other people in the bank by robbing it with a firearm as a remedy for her situation,” Sgt. Brandon McCroskey said. He added that Mayer “took the time to plan this robbery as evidence shows she removed her license plate from her car and tried to remove a bumper sticker.”
McCroskey called the situation “very sad and unfortunate.”
“Seems as though, the way I understand it, she’d been communicating with some people online who may have been scamming her,” Sgt. McCroskey. “A very common theme, unfortunately, and tragically, we see a lot of that with elderly victims who are being scammed out of large amounts of money. It seems like that very well could be the case here.”
Mayers has no known criminal history. She was charged with aggravated robbery with a firearm and tampering with evidence. She was booked into Butler County Jail and her bond was set at $100,000.
If she’s convicted, she faces 10 to 15 years behind bars.
Fairfield Township is located a little more than 30 miles outside of Cincinnati.
Statistics show that while adults ages 18 to 59 are more likely to report losing money to various scams, adults 70 and older tend to incur larger financial losses. Older adults were more likely to fall pretty to tech-support scams and prize, lottery, or sweepstakes scams, with a median loss of $800 for those ages 70-79 and $1,500 for those 80 and older.
