Case #6
St. Paul resident woman is now in custody at the Anoka County Jail after a mouthwash-fueled (mis)adventure that included a bank robbery, a stint in detox, a bus ride to southern California, and a trip to Mexico in search of cheap booze.
The woman, 35, made her first appearance in Blotter thanks to*the frown she was wearing in surveillance footage*taken while she robbed the TCF Bank inside a Blaine Cub Foods store on October 23. But it turns out her hard-to-forget countenance was just one aspect of a very crazy story.
Her lawyer, Bryan Leary,*told the Star Tribune*that when she entered the Cub Foods,*The woman's*"judgment was clouded from*drinking mouthwash for the days before the robbery."
All she wanted was more mouthwash, "but that's not what took place," Leary added.
Opening her eyes as wide as possible to show she the teller she was serious and passing a note that said, "give me the money!"*The woman*left the Blaine bank*$2,700 richer and in a blue van driven by a male accomplice. Suffice it to say she didn't do a very good job spending her looted loot.
ABC Newspapers*explains*what happened next:
Police were able to get a positive identification from public tips after the images were shared by the news media.
Authorities learned that later the same day of the robbery,*The woman*got into a traffic accident in*Cannon Falls and she and the other occupant in her vehicle were intoxicated.
The woman*was taken to a detox facility, but released before its staff were aware that*The woman*was a suspect in the*Blaine TCF Bank robbery.
After*The woman*was freed from detox, her*plight just got crazier and crazier. The Star Tribune explains:
Leary said Tuesday that*The woman*took*a cab from Hastings to the Minneapolis bus station, where she tried to buy a ticket, "but [she] was too drunk and was refused a ticket."...
She gave a stranger $500 from the robbery to buy her a ticket, but the man took off with the cash.*The woman*slept outside*overnight and bought a ticket, "arriving [in California] with less than $1 in her pocket."
She panhandled for cash before she "crossed the border unimpeded ... into Tijuana, where booze is cheap, and she remained there for a few days."
A guilty conscience, probably combined with an empty billfold, prompted*The woman*to reenter*America and turn herself in to authorities in San Diego. She was eventually shipped back to Minnesota and is now cooling her heels in the Anoka County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail.
That damn mouthwash. It's a hell of a drug.