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8th April 2023
04:30pm BST
A 78-year-old woman named Bonnie has been arrested after being accused of robbing a bank for the third time.
Bonnie Gooch, from Missouri, was charged with attempted stealing from a financial institution after being accused of robbing Goppert Financial Bank on Wednesday afternoon, Pleasant Hill police said.
Officers responded to reports of a bank robbery at around 3.20pm and while en route were given a description of the suspect and her car.
Bonnie was nabbed after officers conducted a traffic stop and was taken into custody without incident.
According to police, the chase was "tense" but when officers realised the suspect was an elderly woman they were a little taken aback.
Pleasant Hill Police Chief Thomas Wright told Kansas City’s FOX 4 News: "Obviously it was a tense situation. But when the hands of an elderly woman come out of the car and that is who is driving the suspect vehicle, it’s a little shocking.”
Prosecutors on Thursday set Bonnie's bail at $25,000 (£20,000).
Police said the suspect will be referred to hospital services to see if she needs any help.
Authorities later revealed Bonnie has previous form, having been arrested in 2020 for raiding a bank in Lee's Summit, Missouri.
Bonnie was 75 at the time, and was later convicted.
Her son admitted Bonnie had warned she was going to rob a bank after a dispute with her family.
According to court documents at the time, her son said she “was off her rocker” and had left the house “angry, saying she was going to rob a bank.”
Bonnie's sentence for the crime was suspended and she was released on supervised probation, which later expired in November 2021.
In both robberies, Bonnie handed a note to bank workers demanding money, police said.
The note demanded $3,000 (£2,000) and described how the money should be divided up into sections.
She took the cash and left the bank.
Bonnie's third bank heist occurred in California, in 1977, when she was 32.
