FBI: Ohio bank robbery suspect wrote demand note on document with name, address

In most cases, a bank robber doesn’t want anyone to know who he is.

But this Cleveland man didn’t seem to care. He robbed a bank with no mask. But that’s not the weird part.

Just after 11 a.m. on Monday, he walked up to the counter at a U.S. Bank branch on Euclid Avenue on Cleveland’s East Side and passed a note demanding money.

“When the teller took the note, and looked at it and looked at the other side, she saw his name, he had used a note that he had used earlier at the BMV and it had his name on it,” said Vicki Anderson, Special Agent Cleveland FBI.

That’s right.

As 54-year-old Michael Harrell was robbing the bank, he actually wrote the hold-up note on the back of a document from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, complete with his name and address.

Investigators say the teller was stunned.

“She actually even referred to him as Michael. Gave him the money and called him Michael and then notified law enforcement,” Anderson said.

The Cleveland Office of the FBI says this is not the first time that a bank robber left an incriminating piece of evidence at the scene. But in each case, it makes the job of finding the suspect a lot easier.

“We’ve had individuals drop things on the way out the door, that they didn’t intend to obviously. We’ve had individuals drop cell phones that have all their identifying information in it. A lot of times, we’re sending out pictures, we have no idea who this person could be or what part of town they could be from, and when you present a note that has your name already on it and address, it helps law enforcement tremendously,” Anderson said.