Cops: Man arrested while preparing to rob bank

There was something suspicious about a man wearing a mask and sitting in a car outside a couple of banks in Canton on Thursday.

A concerned citizen called police to report seeing the masked driver in a parking lot near a CVS pharmacy and two banks at Sixes and Bells Ferry roads, authorities said. The man then allegedly took off the mask, got out of his car and covered its tag so that it was obscured.

When Cherokee County Sheriff's deputies responded, they saw a man in the parking lot walk to a car and throw something on the front seat.  He then took an envelope off the rear of the car that had been covering the tag, police said.

Henry Franklin Rainey, 52 , of Canton, told the deputies that he was waiting to pick up his daughter from a location in the Bridge Mill development, authorities said.

Deputies said they saw an open checkbook containing a written note lying on the front seat of Rainey's car. The note indicated Rainey had a gun and wanted $2,000 to be put in the checkbook, they said.

Rainey was arrested and charged with criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, authorities said. He is being held without bond in the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.