Man laughs off armed bank robbery thinking it's a joke

Robert Wood thought it was a joke when a man at the Eastern Bank in Peabody, Mass., came up behind him and poked a gun at his head. A friend had played exactly that trick on him in the same bank two months before, substituting a finger for the gun. "That's what I thought was going on," he said. But moments later Wood was staring at a real gun. "He shoved me down past the teller's window. Then he threw his bag at me and said — 'Put your money in there.'" "I threw the bag back at him," said Wood, who had just made a withdrawal. "I ain't giving you my money."



The gunman, whom police have identified as 47-year-old Mark LePage, seemed to let that go. Yet, he wasn't finished with the 61-year-old businessman. He ordered him to get down on the floor. Again — and he couldn't exactly explain why — Wood wouldn't do it. "I will shoot you," the bandit brandished the gun. Still, Wood remained standing. Seemingly stymied by Wood's refusal, the robber promptly turned away, toward the three bank tellers. He screamed at them: "Give me all the money ... or I will shoot."

"I watched him go up and down the teller windows," said Wood. One teller threw the money in bunches on the counter. The bandit seemed, for a moment, disinclined to bother with scooping it all up. He headed for the door, but soon backtracked and began shoving the bills into his bag. "He was shaking his hand trying to get the money in the bag." He ran off with nearly $22,000. The ordeal, he estimated, lasted little better than five minutes. LePage, of Stoughton, was later arrested by the FBI's Violent Crime Task Force and charged with armed robbery. For his part, Wood praises the FBI and the Peabody police who interviewed him at length in the aftermath of the incident.


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Officials have called every day out of concern for his emotional reaction to the trauma, he said. "Eastern Bank's been real good too. They've called me a couple of times." A photo released by the authorities shows the bank robber holding the gun near the back of Wood's head. It was at this point, Wood said, that he thought he was in the midst of a practical joke. "That's why I've got a big smile on my face." Wood admitted his wife was "a little upset" when she learned of the robbery and his behaviour. He speaks about it easily. When he got back to work and announced that he'd just witnessed a bank robbery, nobody could quite believe it.