Georgia man recently released from prison for bank robbery tried to rob the bank again, then turned himself in

A Georgia man who was recently released from federal prison for a bank robbery he committed a decade ago tried to rob the same location, then called his probation officer to turn himself in, officials said Wednesday.

William Jeffrey Lowder Jr., 41, pleaded guilty this week to attempted bank robbery for his second go at the bank in Macon, a central Georgia city of about 150,000 residents, near the campus of Mercer University.

The two-time robber was on supervised release, part of the sentence from his 2013 robbery of the SunTrust Bank in Macon – now a Truist Bank – in January when he walked into the bank and handed a teller a note, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.

“Money out the register, no dye packs, Sorry!” the note said.

Lowder reached behind him, which the teller believed to be reaching for a weapon, but he did not have any weapon. When the teller told Lowder she didn’t have a register, he left the bank. About an hour later, he called his parole officer and reported the crime and his location. Prosecutors said the whole incident was caught on surveillance cameras.

“The defendant’s choice to attempt to rob a community bank located near a busy university campus caused unnecessary panic in a peaceful place of business,” U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said in a statement.

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In March 2013, Lowder entered the then-SunTrust Bank and handed a note to a teller that read, “Give me $5000 or I will shoot you in the head. I will shoot you dead.”