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The sixth-grader had just been released Saturday from a detention center.
By LEON M. TUCKER
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000
SEMINOLE -- An 11-year-old boy who said he needed money to buy McDonald's food is accused of pulling out a steak knife and robbing a Seminole bank Monday.
The boy walked from his grandmother's Largo house to the First Union Bank at 8800 Park Blvd., arriving about 11 a.m., Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman Cal Dennie said.
With his face covered with a yellow bandana, the youngster approached a teller, Dennie said.
"He was wearing a yellow bandana and a baseball cap and began waving the knife at one of the tellers demanding money," Dennie said. "The teller gave him an undisclosed amount of money, and he left the bank on foot."
Dennie said soon after the boy left the bank, he was confronted by a man in the parking lot. The man, whom Dennie would not identify, told deputies the boy threatened him with the knife.
"The guy said he wasn't intimidated by him, and (the boy) dropped the knife," Dennie said.
The bank's manager ran to a Shell service station next door and asked for help, said Riad Kantir, the station's owner. Kantir said he followed her into the parking lot of the bank, where he helped subdue the boy until deputies arrived.
"I hope this isn't made into a big deal," Kantir said. "I feel sorry for him because he didn't have any money to buy food. It's so sad to see this."
The boy, a Pinellas Park resident and a sixth-grader at Madeira Beach Middle School, was arrested and taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center. The Times is withholding the boy's name because he is a juvenile.
"His reason for robbing the bank was he wanted money to go to McDonald's," Dennie said. "We charged him with one count of bank robbery. It will be up to a judge to decide if they will charge him as an adult."
The youngster, Dennie said, was just released Saturday from a juvenile detention center, where he had been held since Sept. 8 on an aggravated battery charge. Dennie said the boy had used a knife to attack his mother. Dennie didn't know if the woman was injured.
First Union employees declined to comment on the robbery.