Timmy Lee Porter walked into an Anchorage bank this month and handed a teller a note scribbled on the back of a bank slip.
"This is a bank robbery, place 1 100.00 bill on the counter or I will shoot you."
Police arriving on the scene moments later found that note on the floor. The $100 bill was still in the bank. So was Porter, who had taken a seat on a couch in the bank lobby, apparently waiting to be arrested.
Porter, 41, was initially charged with felony bank robbery, but after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in front of a magistrate judge Thursday to a single misdemeanor count of bank larceny. Why Porter held up the bank and then waited to be arrested was unclear.
"Why he did what he did is a mystery," Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cooper said.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court by FBI Special Agent Steven Payne, Porter walked into First National Bank Alaska at 201 W. 36th Ave. just after noon on Oct. 6 and passed the note to a female teller.
When the scared and surprised woman paused, Porter said, "I'm serious," though he didn't show a gun. The woman slid the demand note to the floor and passed the robber a bundle of cash from her drawer.
"Porter removed what (the teller) believed to be a single $100 bill from the money she provided him, then left her station, sat on a couch in the bank lobby, watched the main entrance and appeared to be waiting for something," Payne wrote in an affidavit.
That something came moments later when police swarmed the bank and found him.
"I'm the guy you're looking for," Porter said, according to the affidavit. He showed them a single $100 bill.
An FBI spokeswoman in Washington, Denise Ballew, said bank robbers sticking around to be arrested is "very unusual," but that the agency did not have numbers immediately available for how often that occurs.
Alaska generally sees 10 to 20 bank robberies a year, but it's not without its share of odd cases, said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez.
Back in 2007, a man swinging a flaming torch held up a Fairview credit union, threatening to burn down the building and set people aflame if his demands weren't met. This August, a man gave his real name and account number -- and showed his photo ID -- to a teller at a Midtown credit union before passing her a hold-up note.
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