Robber Loots Bank With Mask Pulled Below Chin, Arrested After Face Caught On Surveillance Camera

A robber looted a South Carolina bank with his anti-coronavirus mask pulled to his chin, making it a bit easier for the authorities to identify him after his bare face was caught on surveillance video.

The Jackson Police Department released the suspect’s images captured from the surveillance video footage in a tweet on Dec. 4 asking for public help in locating him. Police said in the tweet that the robbery occurred at the Trustmark Bank in the 4800 block of Medgar Evers Boulevard just after 11 a.m. ET.

"A male fled with an undetermined amount of cash after passing threatening note," cops said in the tweet. "The incident was captured on surveillance."

In the pictures shared on Twitter, the suspect appears to be dressed in a camouflage jacket, a white shirt and a blue surgical mask cupping the area under his chin. Officials asked to call the Crime Stoppers in case they recognize the suspect involved in the heist.

Visiting a bank with a mask on normal days would draw suspicion from onlookers, but during the pandemic situation, the suspect would have effectively concealed his identity if he wore the mask over his mouth as per the norm. Twitter users were quick to take to the comment section to ridicule the man for his stupidity.

Police were reportedly able to nab the suspect over the weekend. The man was identified as Richard Jiles, 41, according to ABC-affiliated WAPT-TV. No other details regarding Jiles and his arrest were revealed.

With the pandemic raging on, it became common among the bank robbers to take advantage of the mask-wearing mandate to hide their identity. The banks in the U.S. usually disallow people to enter with face masks on but were forced to relax the restriction due to the rise in the COVID-19 cases and thus facing an increased risk of robbery.

"We've never allowed people into banks with masks, you know, simply because of the security risk of having unidentified people in the bank. The challenge we've got is that the pandemic is the larger risk right now," Paul Benda, senior vice president for Risk and Cybersecurity Policy at the American Bankers Association, had told ABC-affiliated KABC-TV.