A Marietta bank teller, scared for her life, handed over $300 on June 16 to a woman who had given her a note, police say.
That was the first in a three-week string of bank robberies in metro Atlanta and Chattanooga that police and the FBI believe were committed by an 18-year-old woman from Memphis, Christian Ware; and Tremell Adams, a 30-year-old Kennesaw man.
Both were arrested Thursday in Marietta.
The woman who used the note to rob the Wells Fargo branch in Marietta wore a green head scarf and black clothes on June 16, surveillance footage shows.
She left the handwritten note behind. According to a Marietta police warrant, it said she “had two bullets, AIDS and was ready to die, give me all of the money in the drawer.”
Law enforcement officials released no other information regarding Ware’s medical status.
Investigators said a note was used in four other robberies, including July 8 when the warrant alleges Ware walked into the Navy Federal Credit Union at 1300 Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw. That note read: “I have two bullets one for me and one for you. Give me all the Money! Thanks.”
Credit: Kennesaw Police Department
Credit: Kennesaw Police Department
The teller gave her $2,517, the warrant said.
An anonymous tipster called the Crime Stoppers line and gave authorities Ware’s name, according to the warrant.
The caller also said she was also "advertising sexual encounters" on Backpage, a website known for such activity, wearing the same kind of clothes surveillance footage showed in the credit union robbery: a red wig and denim shirt.
The warrant says Adams wrote the note in the Marietta robbery. It says he “constructed a note which stated there were two bullets, and to give them all of the money in the drawer, and that they were prepared to die.”
Investigators said a fingerprint of his left thumb was found on the note and his vehicle’s license plate was captured on a camera in the area.
All police reports regarding the robberies said Ware entered the banks alone. An FBI release Friday did not mention Adams’ alleged involvement.
Police did not say how they knew the pair were in the 1800 block of Hazelwood Drive in Marietta where they were arrested.
Here’s a rundown of the incidents police have detailed:
- June 16 about 3:25 p.m. — The female bank robber walks into the Wells Fargo at 602 Roswell St. in Marietta, hands over a note and leaves with an undisclosed amount of money.
- June 26 about 4:25 p.m. — She gives a teller at the PNC Bank location at 5640 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs a note and leaves with an undisclosed amount of money.
- June 28 — The robber enters the Chase Bank at 2002 Howell Mill Road in Atlanta, gives a note and leaves again with an undisclosed amount of cash.
- June 29 about 11:55 a.m. — At a SunTrust Bank on Ringgold Road in Chattanooga, she hands over a note and "in spite of the threat contained in the note, the teller did not give the robber money." The robber demanded the teller give the note back and she left. Police did not give details about the threat in the note.
- July 8 — She enters the Chase Bank at 2350 Cheshire Bridge Road, and for unknown reasons, fails to come away with any money.
- July 8 at 10:40 a.m. — She walks into the Navy Federal Credit Union at 1300 Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw, gives a teller a note and leaves with an undisclosed amount of cash.
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