While test driving a private owner’s car, Gail Castle of California used it to pull a bank robbery.
Gail Castle, 51, asked to take a test drive with a 1987 Chrysler 5th Avenue. The owner, who asked to remain anonymous, insisted on coming along for the ride. A few blocks down the road, Gail Castle asked the owner to pull over at a Bank of America so she could withdraw the $2,200 asking price. She emerged minutes later with a purse stuffed full of bills.
They drove on to the man’s house where she had planned to pay for the car, but the police had caught them on their way back.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , a Georgia bank robbery landed three siblings in jail for 35 years each. Unlike Gail Castle, they will be getting some quality family time behind bars.
According to Bayou Buzz , Gail Castle had handed a note to the Bank of America teller with the words:
“This is a robbery and I don’t want anybody to get hurt.”
The vehicle’s owner told the station:
“I turned my left signal the other side of the crosswalk here, and that’s when the sirens went off. I thought, ‘What in the world is going on?’”
The police were not yet aware that the man was not willingly involved in the crime, and just the owner having been taken along for a test drive gone wrong. They ordered him to step out from his vehicle, and that’s when Castle had threatened to shoot the man if he did so. Thankfully, Castle was bluffing and didn’t actually have a firearm in her possession.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , a woman in Ohio tried to run over her instructor after she failed a driving test. Gail Castle looked to be more scheming, and not a vessel of road rage.
According to Yahoo News , the man told the local news why he defied her after the bank robbery and risked getting shot:
“I thought I’d rather take a chance on her shooting me in the back.”
Gail Castle wanted to be interviewed after her arrest, while the vehicle’s owner decided to remain anonymous.
Did Gail Castle plan this bank robbery for the fame? Or was the test drive a botched ruse to steal the car?
Woman uses test drive as getaway vehicle for bank robbery. Seller on ride-along undoubtedly thinking “WTF!?!” kdvr.com/2013/01/28/wom…
— Paul Hsieh (@PaulHsieh) February 2, 2013