POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — FBI agents say a would-be bank robber tried ― and failed ― to use a threatening hand-scrawled note to pull off a $100,000 heist in Pompano Beach.
They say James Terrod Sipp, 52, told a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy, “No harm, no foul,” but the federal government disagrees: He appeared in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Tuesday on an attempted bank robbery charge.
Investigators said the crime happened just before 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Chase Bank at 101 S. Pompano Parkway.
A federal criminal complaint states that Sipp, wearing a Miami Dolphins hat, along with “a black medical mask, a black sweater, grey pants and black shoes” while holding a Nike bag, walked into the branch and handed a teller a demand note that read, “I have a gun place 10,000 in 100 Dollar Bills on the counter 10 times I want 100,000 or I will kill U.”
Authorities said the teller pressed a panic button and later told investigators that Sipp “appeared to be very jittery, which made her uneasy.”
The complaint states that the teller “recalled him to be the same or very similar to an individual that robbed her at the bank approximately two years prior when she was working as a teller in the same bank.”
Agents said a Sept. 27, 2023 robbery at the branch involved “a Black male with a limp” who apparently was never apprehended.
Authorities said the teller “walked away and began yelling at the security guard” and Sipp became agitated himself, “yelling some words that sounded like, ‘Don’t do that, give me back the note!’”
The teller refused to give Sipp any money and he left the bank, authorities said, and the guard followed him out of the bank.
The guard pointed out Sipp, running through the parking lot of a nearby Wendy’s, to a BSO deputy arriving at the scene, the complaint states.
Sipp was running and threw his gray hat and black sweatshirt into an open area of grass, authorities said. The complaint states that he continued to run as a deputy ordered him to stop, leading the deputy to use his Taser.
According to the complaint, he eventually agreed to speak with deputies, made the “no harm, no foul” statement “because nothing was actually taken from the bank” and claimed he “wrote the demand note and had hoped to get as much money as he could in order to pay rent for his family.”
“(Sipp) was shown photos from that morning’s robbery and at first said he did not want to incriminate himself, but later admitted to handing the teller the note and attempting to rob the bank,” an FBI agent wrote. “(Sipp) said he had a BB gun inside his bag and threw the bag when encountered on the street by BSO deputies. This bag was captured on (a) BSO body worn camera, however, responding officers did not collect the item and it was not recovered.”
Agents said Sipp claimed he wrote the note behind the 2023 robbery, but that his friend “Xavier” actually committed it, but later admitted that he was, in fact, the suspect, saying “he owed gambling money and was able to steal a few hundred dollars.”
They said Sipp also admitted to having an arrest warrant out of Bangor, Maine and multiple past arrests.
He could now face up to two decades in federal prison if convicted.
Records show Sipp, who lives in Pompano Beach, is slated to again appear in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Tuesday for a pre-trial detention hearing; he’s set to be arraigned Sept. 2.
In the meantime, jail records show Sipp was being held in the BSO Main Jail on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service as of Wednesday.
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