Police nab alleged robber about 200 yards from bank

By Christy Smith (366)

Thursday, January 24, 2008
© Copyright 2013 Gwinnett Daily Post

SUWANEE - A man accused of robbing the BB&T Bank in Suwanee was apprehended by police officers about 200 yards away only few minutes after the robbery.

Richard Robert Denicola, 43, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., is being held in the Gwinnett County Jail without bond.

Suwanee police were patrolling in the area Tuesday when a call came across the radio at 11:58 a.m. that the BB&T Bank at 2885 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road had been robbed. According to police reports, a man walked into the bank wearing sunglasses on a cloudy day. Tipped off by the sunglasses, the teller activated the silent alarm. She told police the man put a note on the counter without saying a word and that he had a bulge in his zipped-up jacket that she believed to be a gun.

The man got away with $1,725.

"People don't realize how little they get when they rob a bank," said Capt. Clyde Byers, spokesman for the Suwanee Police Department. "The real money is in a vault on a timer. Tellers don't keep much money in their drawers."

Suwanee police officers caught Denicola a few minutes later behind the Horizon Village Shopping Center in which the bank is located. He had no weapons on him, according to police reports. Byers said that officers recovered the money.

Byers described Denicola as "a down-on-his-luck, unemployed industrial painter."

"He said he couldn't find work," Byers said.

Gwinnett Daily Post