Elderly Florida man, 67, arrested by FBI for $650 bank robbery — all to pay his rent

An elderly Florida man was arrested by the FBI after he attempted to rob a Miami-area bank for $650 because he was “in desperate need for rent money” and faced becoming homeless.

On Aug. 24, Michael Terry Noojin, 67, jumped in line at a Bank of America in Hollywood, Florida just after 2:40 p.m. and waited while the three tellers working were helping two other customers.

Noojin then walked up to the awaiting teller and slid a brown plastic shopping bag underneath the protective glass divider, telling her “I have a gun, put all the money in the bag” according to an FBI criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Beast.

The teller didn’t reply to Noojin’s demands, forcing him to repeat his statement.

“I’m not playing around, I have a gun, put the money in the bag,” Noojin said.

The teller who was facing Noojin claimed she never saw a gun but locked her cash drawer anyway, prompting the two other tellers next to her to do the same with one of them also activating the emergency alarm, according to the criminal complaint submitted to the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Noojin, who was wearing a yellow polo shirt with sailboats and birds, blue jeans, white shoes and sunglasses, sensed his plan was foiled, grabbed the bag, and ran out of the building using the emergency exit.

It didn’t take long for Noojin’s face to hit the news as someone saw the would-be bank robber at the halfway house he was staying at, still wearing the same boat and bird-decorated shirt he wore during the failed robbery earlier in the day.

The individual called Hallandale police and gave them Noojin’s address, where they talked to him in a “non-custodial interview,” in the early evening of Aug. 24.

The man admitted to police that he had attempted to rob the Bank of America branch earlier in the day.

Noojin then showed the police the yellow shirt in his closet, where his sunglasses and white shoes from the security footage were as he pulled out the plastic bag that was still inside his back pocket. 

Noojin had a bandaid on his cheek, that correlated with the tellers’ description and on the bank surveillance cameras, allegedly telling law enforcement it was there because of the “skin cancer he had on his face.”

After identifying himself through the photos captured at the bank, Noojin told cops his heartbreaking motive behind his attempted robbery, saying he was “in desperate need for rent money,” as it was the “last chance for him to obtain $650 before he would be homeless,” the complaint added.

The complaint, which was filed on Sunday, charged Noojin with “knowingly, by means of intimidation, attempting to take from the person and presence of an employee of a federally insured bank, United States currency belonging to, and in the care, custody, control, management, and possession of the Hollywood, Florida Bank of America.”

Noojin is in federal custody for the attempted robbery because the Bank of America branch is insured by the FDIC and is expected to make his initial appearance in Fort Lauderdale federal court.