You couldn’t have picked a worse place — or a worse time — to commit a crime, as a bank robber discovered Friday afternoon in downtown Columbus.
Jackie Daniel Jennings, 56, entered Cadence Bank, located at 803 Main Street, around 2 p.m. Friday, carrying a note saying he had a bomb. Jennings took an undetermined amount of cash and ran out of the bank, not realizing there were multiple Columbus Police Department officers patrolling nearby.
He was caught in the parking lot on the east side of the bank and arrested without incident. He was unarmed, and no explosives were found.
“It was a couple of minutes, maybe,” Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen said. “I think this is probably the fastest apprehension we’ve ever made. It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time.”
Jennings was reportedly staying at the Budget Inn on Main Street, a little over a mile away. He is currently in the custody of the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, awaiting his preliminary hearing. His bond was set Saturday at $35,000.
McQueen said the last bank robbery he recalled on Main Street occurred in 1989 at 22nd Street and Main. The robber was apprehended just a short way down the street.
“Crime doesn’t pay,” McQueen said.
Friday’s incident is still under investigation.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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