PLANTATION, Fla. – The Broward Sheriff’s Office has arrested two suspected “bank juggers” in connection with multiple vehicle burglaries.
The suspects, identified as Keith Bernard Norman, 47, and Gibson Wendell Green, 36, both of Miami, were taken into custody Thursday morning by detectives with BSO’s Burglary Apprehension Team (BAT) and the Pembroke Pines Burglary Suppression Team (BST).
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According to BSO spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright, “bank jugging is when suspects target and steal money from bank customers. They watch people entering and leaving banks. When the suspects believe a customer has left with cash, they follow the customer to the next location. Detectives said the suspects then either take the money by force or burglarize the individual’s car to get the unattended cash.”
Coleman-Wright said detectives began mobile surveillance Thursday on a silver 2012 Nissan Altima in Plantation, which fit the description of a car used during multiple vehicle burglaries throughout South Florida.
Authorities said Norman and Green were spotted watching customers enter and exit the Wells Fargo bank at 1191 S. University Drive in Plantation and then followed a man who left the bank and drove to a post office on Northwest Fifth Street.
Coleman-Wright said the suspects smashed the victim’s front passenger-side window after he went into the post office and took his bank bag, which had been left on the front passenger seat.
She said the duo then fled the scene before being pulled over and taken into custody in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95.
“Sheriff Gregory Tony was in the area and saw the detectives conducting the takedown,” Coleman-Wright said. “He got out of his vehicle, put on his bulletproof vest and grabbed his patrol rifle to support his troops and assist them by providing tactical cover while they safely took both suspects into custody.”
Norman and Green were both booked into the Broward County Main Jail.
Coleman-Wright said they both also face charges in connection with a similar crime that was committed Monday afternoon.
In that case, the duo are accused of targeting a victim who made a transaction at a Wells Fargo bank near University Drive and Johnson Street in Pembroke Pines.
Both men face charges of burglary to conveyance across county lines, petit theft, conspiracy to commit a felony and criminal mischief.
“Detectives remind people to be aware of your surroundings at all times and make sure you are not being followed when you leave the bank,” Coleman-Wright said.