On Thursday, Reyes walked into a Chase Bank on State Road 436 in Casselberry, Florida, wearing a wig and a long gold dress, WFTV reported. Security footage captured inside the bank shows the 51-year-old walking up to one of the tellers and handing him something.
According to Casselberry police, Reyes gave the teller a note saying that he was a carrying weapons in his bag and would use them if he wasn’t given money.
The note, which was written in Spanish, said: “I have sufficient weapons to kill everybody here—give me your car keys, I want unmarked bills and nothing electronic because if so I’ll start to shoot.”
After reading the note, the teller reportedly handed Reyes around $1,000 in cash. In the security footage, the 51-year-old can be seen putting the cash in his bag before calmly walking out of the bank.
Reyes then ditched the disguise in the restroom of a nearby restaurant and was spotted by a Seminole County deputy passing by.
“[The deputy] noticed somebody coming out of the bushes. The deputy immediately confronted the individual, exited the car and saw bizarre behavior,” Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma told WFTV.
The two got into a tussle during which Reyes tried to grab the deputy’s weapon. The deputy managed to stop him and tried to subdue Reyes with his stun gun but the suspect got away. Reyes then led the deputy on a foot chase through an apartment complex, according to police, which ended with the suspect stealing a patrol vehicle.
Reyes took off in the cruiser leading deputies on a chase through residential areas of Orange and Seminole counties during which the suspect hit several other civilian vehicles. Eventually, Seminole County deputies stopped Reyes and apprehend him in Maitland, Florida. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured during the chase.
“There’s nothing that drives me crazier than to see a ‘bad guy,’ or know that a ‘bad guy’ got behind the wheel of one of our patrol vehicles, even for just one moment,” Lemma told Fox 35 Orlando. “I’m OK that he was in the car, but he was sitting in the wrong seat.”
After his arrest, Reyes told investigators that he was a “victim of circumstance” and that he robbed the bank because he needed money.
He now faces several charges including battery on an officer, aggravated fleeing to elude police, obstructing police, resisting an officer with violence, vehicle theft, criminal damage to property, robbery with a firearm or weapon and larceny, according to police records.
