Bank Robber Who Used Fake Bombs Is Going to Prison

Image: Morris Kenneth Thweatt (MCPD)

A Silver Spring man pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to robbing three local banks in the summer of 2014, and he was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.

Morris Kenneth Thweatt, 47, also will serve three years of supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm also ordered Thweatt to forfeit and pay restitution of $22,773, the total amount that he stole.

According to investigators with the Montgomery County police, Thweatt entered each bank and passed a note to the teller claiming he had a bomb. He then displayed a device wrapped in foil to the teller.

The first robbery took place on June 10, 2014, federal prosecutors said, when Thweatt entered Capital One Bank on Tech Road and told a teller that he had an explosive device, and demanded money. The “device” was a canister with a radio wire. Thweatt stole about $4,500 and fled.

On July 2, Thweatt robbed the Capital One Bank on University Boulevard, warning a teller that he was going to light a device he was carrying on fire, federal prosecutors said. The “device” was in fact a plastic bag with an electrical wire wrapped in aluminum foil attached to the bag. Thweatt stole $8,075 and fled.

On July 22, Thweatt threatened a teller at the Bank of America branch on Colesville Road with a fake improvised explosive device, saying he was going to blow the place up, the prosecutors said. He stole $10,198 and fled.

Detectives with the Montgomery County police identified Thweatt through DNA evidence, and police officers arrested him at his residence on July 25.

Thweatt’s prison sentence totals 80 months, or 6 years and eight months. He was sentenced in a hearing Friday in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.