Whoa! Ryan Coogler was mistaken for a bank robber at the start of the year – and he even got detained for it!
According to an Atlanta Police Department report obtained by TMZ on Wednesday morning, the Black Panther director was detained after stopping by a Bank of America in the Georgia city to make a large transaction back in January. While the whole thing was totally legal, a bank teller felt the exchange was suspicious and called the cops! WTF???
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In the report, it states that Coogler entered the establishment in sunglasses and a COVID-19 face mask — a completely normal and reasonable situation given the state of the pandemic at that time. He then handed the BoA employee a withdrawal slip that had a note written on the back.
In the handwritten request, he asked:
“I would like to withdraw $12,000 cash from my checking account. Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.”
Again, completely legal! And given how much money he was trying to leave with, it makes perfect sense that he wouldn’t want others in the building to notice! But the teller’s red flag warnings were apparently going off like crazy at this point, and it didn’t help that when she went to make the transaction, it triggered an alert on the computer.
After telling her boss, they decided to dial 911 to the scene for what she believed was an attempted robbery. When cops got to the location, they detained two people who were waiting for Ryan in an SUV outside. They then brought the Marvel filmmaker out in handcuffs! OMG!
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An investigation into the incident quickly followed, during which police confirmed that the teller, described as “a pregnant Black woman,” was completely at fault for the mistake. By the end, cops realized that the 35-year-old did nothing wrong. Ryan supposedly asked for the badge numbers of the responding officers after everyone was released, and he was rightfully mad about the ordeal.
Thankfully, it sounds like he and the bank were able to resolve hard feelings since he told the outlet:
“This situation should never have happened. However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on.”
That’s good to hear! We can’t imagine how stressful that must have been!
As Perezcious readers know, the Creed screenwriter has been in Georgia a lot over the last year while filming the Black Panther sequel, and it’s been filled with lots of controversies, including cast injuries and star Letitia Wright‘s coronavirus conspiracy talk!
We’re thankful the incident ended without anybody being hurt, or anything even worse happening. Still, it’s an awful and unacceptable situation, and something that absolutely should NOT have happened to the filmmaker.
To check out some pictures from the bank during the January incident, click HERE.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers?
[Image via Vanity Fair/YouTube]
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