The notes passed to the bank tellers were clear, police said. The man on the other side of the counter demanded money, and each message ended with an unusual twist: “#nopolice,” “#becarefull,” or “#Afterwork?” It was a calling card left at a series of robberies that investigators eventually dubbed the “Hashtag String.” The chain of bank heists came to a close Thursday, police said, when the man police were looking for unwittingly parked the suspected getaway car next to a detective investigating the case.
Leroy Earl-Morris Daley, 45, faces charges in nine robberies in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties stretching to at least September, police said. Four of those robberies came in quick succession Thursday — three within 15 minutes — just hours before his arrest. “Not only do we have an unusual end to a string of bank robberies,” said Prince George’s County Police spokeswoman Julie Parker, “this is the first time that we know of that hashtags were used to rob a bank.”
The day of Daley’s arrest started with a bank robbery in New Carrollton around 10:45 p.m. Thursday, police said. While Prince George’s Sgt. Craig Winegardner was investigating the robbery at the TD Bank on Annapolis Road, he got a call from his counterparts in Montgomery County. “They had three bank robberies back-to-back-to-back, with similar descriptions,” Winegardner said.
Montgomery police offered clear images of the robber and vehicle used in the string to neighboring Prince George’s. A few hours later, as Winegardner stepped out of a restaurant in Glenarden, he noticed something he couldn’t believe. “Parked right next to my cruiser was the suspect vehicle,” Winegardner said. “I thought, there’s no way it’s going to be this easy to close this big bank robbery string.” Turns out, it was. Everything about the car next to the sergeant’s unmarked cruiser matched the description offered by Montgomery police, down to the make, model and dent on the back bumper, Winegardner said.
