A Carter County man charged with an attempted bank robbery last week made his first appearance in court on Monday.
Investigators with the Elizabethton Police Department arrested Alexander Leroy, 33, of 112 Hickory Hollow Road, Apt. 1, Elizabethton, on Thursday and charged him with attempted aggravated robbery.
During Leroy’s appearance in Carter County General Sessions Court on Monday, Judge Keith Bowers Jr. appointed the Public Defender’s Office to represent Leroy. Bowers scheduled Leroy to return to court for arraignment on Tuesday.
The charges against Leroy stem from an incident that happened shortly before noon on Thursday when police were summoned to the Carter County Bank branch location on Bemberg Road in response to a panic alarm at the bank.
According to court documents when officers arrived on the scene bank personnel told them a male subject, later identified as Leroy, had attempted to rob the bank. Witnesses provided officers with a description of the man and the vehicle he was seen leaving the bank in. Officers located the vehicle a short distance away on West G Street and stopped it, and found Leroy to be the driver.
Bank employees told officers Leroy entered the bank and remained at the work station for several minutes and it appeared he was completing paperwork to either make a deposit or withdrawal.
“(Leroy) approached a teller with a deposit ticket with the amount $500,000 written on it and no other information,” EPD Capt. Joy Shoun said in the warrant for Leroy’s arrest.
The teller told officers she asked Leroy if he was an account holder and he said he was but refused to provide any additional information. Leroy then reportedly told the teller the transaction would be a withdrawal.
“The teller reported that the male was acting strangely and she realized that he was attempting to commit a robbery,” Shoun said. “She also observed something in his pocket and based on his movements was in fear for her safety.”
The teller reported she told the man she did not have that amount of money at the branch and he asked her if someone else could get it. The teller said she was able to activate the bank’s panic alarm and walk over to another teller and alert the other employee as to what was going on.
The teller told officers they again told Leroy they did not have that amount of money at the branch and he then told them to give him “what they had in their drawer,” Shoun said. The employees told Leroy they were unable to access the money and he then left the bank.
When officers stopped the SUV Leroy was driving, they located a wig and hat matching the description given by the tellers as well as a Carter County Bank deposit slip with $500,000 written on it.
Shoun said investigators interviewed Leroy regarding the incident and he denied any wrongdoing.
Leroy remains held at the Carter County Detention Center under a $50,000 bond.