Top Cop Nails Bank Robber




 in Halloween Heist


Sprayed gasoline on bank tellers

This brazen bank robber got the same bank again on Halloween in what could have been a horrific result had he set fire to the tellers.  Left Gantt is being led into the Sheriff's headquarters for questioning by St. Mary's Deputy First Class Stephen Myers and Dfc. Patrick Handy.  ST. MARY'S TODAY photo; right is the bank photo of Antonio Gantt, as he posed for the cameras in the bank making one wonder if he just wanted to get back to prison for "three hots and a cot". 
Bank photo via St. Mary's Sheriff's Dept.



St. Mary's Sheriff's Capt. John Horne, in black shirt, listens to Maryland State Police Detective Anthony Malaspina, who figured in last week's capture of a serial burglar, Detective Sgt. William Rosado of the State Police and Detectives Mike Gray and Clay Safford to Horne's right; detective Daniel Ray is to Malaspina's left. At right is the bank robber, who hailed a cab when he left Maryland Bank and Trust and headed back across the bridge to miss the traffic before rush hour.  The bank robber, who just robbed this convenient branch of the area's largest independent bank, was recognized by a clerk in the Eckerd Drug store in Millison Plaza and had called police to tip them off.  The robber Antonio, Warren Gantt then headed over to his friendly bank branch on Shangri-Drive in Lexington Park and sprayed gasoline round on the counter and then herded the terrified tellers into the bank on this very unfunny Halloween Heist.  Gantt will be doing his trick or treating at the Hotel St. Mary's unless some bozo judge lets him out on work release so he can be close to the bank.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photos and video

Hero Cab Driver, Says Sheriff Cameron

"I thought something was fishy," cab driver Wayne Cutchember told ST. MARY'S TODAY. The Friendly Cab taxi that Cutchember was driving when he picked up a bank robber as a fare is being hauled away on a roll back truck as Sgt. William Rosado of the Maryland State Police interviews Cutchember on Rt. 4 near the Rt. 235 intersection. 
 ST. MARY'S TODAY photos


Top Cop was Ready to Rumble

The call for the bank robbery at the same bank as hit before had the police using their resources wisely, spreading units out on the lookout for a cab.  Capt. John Horne who had been in Lexington Park for an appointment immediately responded to the call, as a veteran of many years in detective work, and took up a position at the small insurance agency on the north bound side of Rt. 235 across from First Colony Shopping Center. 
"I heard the lookout," Capt. Horne told ST. MARY'S TODAY, "and I backed into the driveway at the traffic light, it didn't take long and the cab came up to the light and the suspect looked right over at me and you could see by the expression on his face that he new he had been caught."  The light changed and Capt. Horne radioed for assistance and a short distance later the cab with his growing collection of police cars turned the corner and quickly came to a stop.
"That cab driver was awesome, "said Sheriff Cameron, "he had to be nervous and he just kept his composure and quickly came to a stop when the units put on their lights."
Sgt. Rosado asked Cutchember if all of the money was that of the bank or any belonged to him and the cab company.  Surely Maryland Bank President Tom Daugherty will want to make sure the cabbie gets his tip.
The bank employees were shook up by the man threatening them with the flammable substance would all likely wish to volunteer to be on his jury.

 
Deputies spread out through the area, said Sheriff Cameron, who said while some officers responded to interview witnesses, others were deployed though the area.   Maryland Bank and Trust is the largest local bank and began at this branch in Lexington Park.  This scene shows the last robbery on Sept. 26th.  The bank robber changed his clothes and doubled back to the scene that day and asked a photographer if there had been a bank robbery.  When told yes, he said they would probably blame it on a black guy.  
Sheriff Cameron was asked today if racial profiling had been employed as a tool to find this robber today, as he did not wear a mask. 
"No, we just stopped the first cab with a bank robber inside," said the Sheriff, who said he was going to take his kids out for trick or treating. 
 

Businessman Inside Bank During Holdup


Chuck Kimball   ST. MARY'S TODAY photo

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEXINGTON PARK (Nov. 1, 2007) Local businessman Chuck Kimball was in an office on the second floor of the main branch of Maryland Bank and Trust in Lexington Park when it was robbed on Halloween.  The barrel-chested Marine who has been in local business for the past 30 years was on a routine errand to the loan officer of the bank on Halloween, doing his own version of lending trick or treat.

“We were upstairs in the bank, I was with Margaret Sawyer, the bank vice president,” said Chuck Kimball. “We heard some yelling and Margaret said she smelled gasoline, I have had a lot deviated septum surgery and don’t smell that well anymore but even I could smell it.”

Kimball said more yelling took place and they realized it was a lot more than a teller calling out to customer who left behind their glasses or something else at the counter.

“We went downstairs and found that bank manager Val Buckner was there and some of the tellers who had been herded into the bank vault were coming out,” Kimball told ST. MARY’S TODAY.  “They were crying and were terrified, Linda was having heart problems and I just held a couple of them and hugged them, you could hear the sirens as the police cars rolled in, the officers who came in were very business-like and separated the tellers and bank officers to interview them.  Val told everyone to call their families to let them know they were okay.  Some of them were really frightened, the robber had sprayed them with gas and held up a lighter and told them he was going to light them on fire if they came out of the vault. He got money and took off before we came downstairs.”

Kimball said the officers were “squared away and professional” and in just a matter of minutes before much time elapsed, one of the officers came in and told them that the robber had been captured.

“The bank employees were very professional and did as they were trained,” said Kimball. “We were all really impressed with the police and Linda was checked out by the medical crew, I know everyone did well, but they were really scared. I just hugged a couple of them they were shaking so much, to calm them down. This guy actually took a couple of the teller's purses too. He was really terrifying them. Just mean.  This was the second time for all of the tellers, about the same time of day, in just a little over a month.”

Antonio Warren Gantt ---  Wanted Dead or Alive

That would be what the poster would read were this Dodge City...it is legal to shoot a robber but not too many bank tellers are armed...however it is perfectly acceptable for store owners to shoot and it is important for gangsters who rob stores to understand that they can be be blown away, especially if there is a sign in the store which reads "We don't call 911" over a gun.  Criminals need to understand that others have rights too...


This bank camera obviously is guilty of racial profiling.

LEXINGTON PARK (Sept. 27) UPDATE ON L P CITY BANK HEIST.....maybe not dead but he's wanted anyway for the robbery of Maryland Bank & Trust in Lexington Park, this St. Leonard resident allegedly robbed the bank on Monday afternoon about 2 pm and beat feet in the direction of Raley's Furniture.  Gantt, 40, of St. Leonard, often stays at different households in St. Mary's, according to St. Mary's Sheriff Tim Cameron.  Police paid a visit to his Calvert County residence without any luck on Tuesday night and several businesses in St. Mary's have contacted police to ID him.  While in prison, court records show that he has sued a variety of state officials including Calvert Circuit Court Judge Warren Krug, perhaps for simply having the same name. 
Gantt has had a full-time job in dealing with the court system in that he has been attempting to overturn a 1993 forgery and burglary convictions in St. Mary's Circuit Court through a series of attorneys with the latest one, Shane Mattingly, of Leonardtown, withdrawing from his case just last month, one of at least four attorney's to represent Gantt since 2001. 
Gantt may have wanted to get enough money from the bank to hire one of those big city lawyers who could show these local ambulance chasers a thing or two. While in the Maryland State Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Gantt was charged with assault on a prison guard and was found guilty, but in the process, Gantt must have been visiting the prison library as he filed motions through half the members of the Allegheny County bar association as well as the public defender.
Why did Gantt allegedly rob this bank (we say allegedly as a black man walking past the scene of the bank robbery, who looked a lot like Gantt, said to ST. MARY'S TODAY, "WHAT HAPPENED, DID SOMEONE ROB THE BANK?"  When told that was what happened, he said, "THEY'LL PROBABLY TRY TO BLAME A BLACK MAN".  The man, carrying a gym bag, continued on foot down Shangri-La Drive in the direction of the townhouses across from Bay District firehouse.), it has not yet been proven that Gantt is the man in the photo, it just looks a lot like him, according to those how know him.   Gantt may simply be lonely for a return trip to the prison and misses the excellent law library.  Robbing a bank is a handy way to get a free bus ticket back to the joint.
The man who sauntered past the bank, looked like Gantt, making this story even more bizarre if that was him doubling back to watch the cops show up.