BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — One serial robber's crime spree is over after hitting 11 banks in a month and a half. Police say the 30-year-old robber held up banks in five Central Florida counties and even some in Tennessee and Mississippi. Investigators say he was living the high life with the stolen cash.
RAW INTERVIEW: Bank Robber From Jail SLIDESHOW: Bank Surveillance Of Suspect
A deputy was driving by a Merritt Island parking lot and thought a car in it was being burglarized. He pulled in and discovered the car was just being worked on, but recognized the man doing the work as a bank robber who struck banks from Brevard to Orlando.
"Is there anything you can do to get me out of this?" Jamie Gordon asked the judge, referring to the suicide-prevention gown jail staff put him in. "They said they were worried about my well being, had nothing to do with what I did or said and they put me in this. I have no idea what this is for."
Gordon is facing charges for robbing 11 banks in three states, including banks in Rockledge, Palm Bay, Sanford, Daytona Beach and Orlando. It amounts to a bank just about every week from mid-February until Tuesday.
Jamie William Gordon 040710 Jamie Gordon That's when Brevard County Sheriff's Office Corporal Song Hill happened to spot a car that he thought looked suspicious in the parking lot of a vacant Sears building and a man working on the door.
"As he walked up to me, I could see his facial features and, from the picture, he looked extremely like him," Song explained.
Song said he had a picture from a surveillance camera from one of the bank robberies attached to the visor of his patrol car, so he knew right away he could be dealing with a serial bank robber.
"I asked him about the vehicle. He said he was fixing it for his girlfriend," Song explained.
Song said Gordon was calm and tried to tell him he was from Canada and didn't have an ID. When deputies tried to arrest him, he ran a short distance before giving up.
"His motive was to finance being on the run. He was very clear about that and he had no objections to telling us about that," FDLE agent Wayne Ivey said.
Agents said, while Gordon didn't have a home, he was driving a stolen BMW and using stolen cash, $11,000 altogether from the bank robberies, to take women on lavish dates. One woman told investigators he tipped a waiter $50 to impress her.
Investigators are questioning whether Gordon was also using the dates to scope out potential targets; after eating out at the Cheesecake Factory at the Mall at Millenia one night, agents say he robbed the bank across the street the next day.
Investigators said Gordon showed no remorse and, in fact, told detectives his only mistake was staying in Central Florida too long. Investigators also said they haven't found any of the cash or a gun Gordon said he had when he was robbing the banks.
Gordon is being held no bond in the Brevard County jail. He is likely going to be turned over to the U.S. Marshal's Office for the warrant out of Tennessee, but could face federal prosecution for the bank robberies across Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee.