Man cross-dresses as mother to withdraw money from her account

Dressed in his mother's clothes and flashing her driver’s licence, a Somerset County man is accused of trying to withdraw $700 from the woman's bank account. Tita Nyambi, 25, of Crown Road in Franklin, is accused of multiple offences, including third-degree forgery and attempted theft by deception for the incident that occurred on Monday at Chase Bank in Franklin.

A slender man with close-cropped hair, Nyambi was wearing handcuffs and khaki prison garb when he appeared before Superior Court Judge Paul Armstrong in Somerville, where Somerset Assistant County Prosecutor Jamin Cooper handed him a copy of the complaint.

Nyambi pulled into the bank’s drive-through lane on Elizabeth Avenue at 1:22 p.m., Sgt. Philip Rizzo said. He was wearing his mother’s pink blouse, her black coat and head scarf and tried to speak in a high-pitched voice, according to the affidavit Detective Brian Stillwell filed in Superior Court.

Nyambi handed over the licence and a bank form, forged with the woman’s signature, Stillwell wrote. Bank personnel called police, telling them a man was trying to withdraw funds from a woman’s account. Nyambi was still there when officers arrived, Rizzo said.