Taxi ride goes wrong after SC passenger tries to rob bank from the back seat, feds say
A cab ride went awry for a taxi driver after his passenger attempted to rob a bank drive-thru from his back seat in South Carolina, prosecutors said.
Now, the passenger is going to prison.
Angel Luis Masdeu, 59, from Hartsville, about 70 miles northeast of Columbia, was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to attempted bank robbery, according to court records.
Masdeu’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 4.
On Feb. 25, 2021, Masdeu took a taxi to the South State Bank in Hartsville, according to court documents.
When the taxi arrived at the bank, Masdeu asked the driver to enter the drive-thru line and pass an envelope to the bank teller, according to a May 3 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
Prosecutors said the envelope contained a note demanding “all money from all drawers” and threatening to “kill and/or blow up the bank.”
The bank teller immediately activated the alarm, and Hartsville Police Department officers quickly arrived on the scene, the release stated.
Prosecutors said police found several other envelopes matching the one Masdeu used inside the cab. Authorities said the taxi driver was not involved in the robbery.
Masdeu was sentenced to six years in federal prison for one count of attempted robbery to be followed by three years of supervised release, court records show.
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 11:23 AM with the headline "Taxi ride goes wrong after SC passenger tries to rob bank from the back seat, feds say."
