Dingfelder In Credit Union As Thief Hits
TAMPA — City Councilman John Dingfelder got a close brush with crime Wednesday afternoon.
He was at the Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, conducting business, when the bank was robbed.
“It was a little unnerving,” Dingfelder said. “It made me think about how scary it must be to be a bank teller, because of the inevitability of something like this happening.”
The suspect showed a small handgun to a teller and demanded money, according to a police department release. No one was injured. The man fled from the scene on foot and jumped over a fence.
The robbery unfolded at about 4:05 p.m., Dingfelder said.
“I know because I looked at my watch because I knew someone would ask,” he said in a telephone interview about an hour after the incident.
Tampa police robbery detectives are looking for a white man in a dirty orange jacket, about 5 feet 4 inches tall, in his 40s or 50s with two missing front teeth. He possibly was intoxicated, police said.
Not that Dingfelder would know.
“I am the worst witness,” he said. “I was wrapped up with my own banking business and the next thing I know, the tellers are yelling. ‘Shut the door, shut the door.’ Apparently, the guy just bolted out of there, so they shut the door behind them and locked us in. I didn’t see anybody.”
Dingfelder said he was locked in the bank with about 10 other customers and eight employees for about 40 minutes. Police eventually let him go because he had so few details about the incident.
The south Tampa Democrat, who is running for reelection, praised bank employees and police.
“The bank management handled it real well,” he said.
Police, he said, were on the scene in about two minutes and quickly secured the area searching for the suspect.
“I was pretty impressed,” he said.
Dingfelder said it was a new experience.
“This was the first time and hopefully the last,” he said.
