Sep 27, 2018 3 min read

An apparent return trip to a convenience store to get the tank of gas she paid for but never pumped proved to be a bad move for a woman who less than an hour earlier robbed a bank inside a Carroll Township supermarket, police said.

Angela Marie McKinley, 40, of 127 McKean Ave., Donora, was taken into custody after she was blocked in by police cruisers off Cemetery Hill at the Monongahela Bridge.

McKinley is accused of robbing the Citizens Bank branch inside Giant Eagle, 1300 Country Club Road, at 12:24 p.m. McKinley reportedly handed a teller a note and told her she had a gun. The teller told police she never saw a weapon. After getting the money, she fled in a vehicle in an unknown direction.

Carroll police Chief Paul Brand said Monongahela police were the first to respond because members of his department were doing weapons qualifications. After broadcasting a general description of the robber, police went to the bank to look at video surveillance.

“We got a description of the vehicle that we put out on the radio,” Brand said. “Then i got a call from an alert citizen who said a vehicle matching the description was heading back in the direction of Giant Eagle from the Donora area on Route 837.”

Brand spotted the maroon Buick sedan about 12:50 p.m., less than a half-hour after the robbery. The driver appeared to be the woman who robbed the bank.

“I edged toward her and tried to block her in, but she went around me,” Brand said. “I followed her. She was going 65 to 70 mph.”

Brand said he alerted other officers she was headed in the direction of Monongahela Bridge, where they were able to block her in. Brand said he pulled his cruiser alongside her vehicle and motioned for her to stop.

“She said she had gone to a local convenience store after the robbery, where she bought cigarettes and gasoline,” Brand said. “But she forgot to pump the gas, so she turned around and was going back to the gas station.”

In plain view on the driver’s side floor was a blue grocery bag containing a large amount of money, some of it still wrapped in bands. Also found inside the car was a deposit slip from her bank on West Main Street in Monongahela. The slip showed she made a $2,000 deposit into her account at 12:30 p.m. The dark blue sweatshirt and blue-and-white hat she wore during the robbery was on the front passenger seat.

Court documents indicate $22,825 was found in the vehicle. Bank officials told police $26,000 was stolen in the robbery.

Brand said it was unusual for a woman to be involved in a robbery.

“Most of the bank robbers are men,” he said, adding it was the first time this branch has been robbed since opening several years ago.

Assisting Carroll police were officers from Monongahela, Donora and Charleroi. Brand said the Mon Valley office of the FBI also was contacted, but the case was referred back for local prosecution.

McKinley was arraigned Wednesday night before District Judge Traci McDonald on charges of robbery, aggravated assault, theft, receiving stolen property, reckless endangerment and fleeing or attempting to elude police. She was placed in Washington County jail on $75,000 bond. McKinley is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday before District Judge Mark Wilson. She also has several retail theft convictions in Washington, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties.