The woman known around Atlanta as the ‘Freedom Fighter Bandit’ has been captured, the FBI announced Monday.
Nilsa Marie Urena was arrested Saturday shortly after robbing a credit union just outside Nashville, Tennessee, FBI spokesman Kevn Rowson said, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The 25-year-old was wanted in connection with a string of nine bank robberies in metro Atlanta over the past three-and-a-half months.
She is referred to as the ‘Freedom Fighter Bandit’ because she says she is robbing banks for ‘the movement’ and ‘for the streets.’ At each location Urena allegedly tells bank tellers she needs money for a variety of social causes.
Nilsa Marie Urena, the woman known around Atlanta as the ‘Freedom Fighter Bandit’ has been captured, the FBI announced Monday
The 25-year-old was wanted in connection with a string of nine bank robberies in metro Atlanta over the past three-and-a-half months. She is pictured in Dallas Georgia on January 25, her most recent alleged robbery
Her alleged crime spree began on October 30 at a Wells Fargo Bank in Stone Mountain, where she presented a demand note to tellers.
When they didn’t give her the cash, she drove about 20 miles to Ellenwood to do the same at an Associated Credit Union, police told the AJC.
If tellers didn’t give her the money, police said she would tell them she had a bomb and was going to blow up the bank.
‘As the bank teller gathered the money, the robber stated to the teller that she would pray for her and also reiterated that the bomb would go at any time,’ Clayton County Sgt Ashanti Marbury said in a press release after the first incident.
She is referred to as the ‘Freedom Fighter Bandit’ because she says she is robbing banks for ‘the movement’ and ‘for the streets.’ At each location Urena allegedly tells bank tellers she needs money for a variety of social causes
If tellers didn’t give her the money, police said she would tell them she had a bomb and was going to blow up the bank
Urena was identified as the primary suspect in November when two teenagers were arrested in connection with a bank robbery, according to the AJC.
Urena was identified as the primary suspect in November when two teenagers were arrested in connection with a bank robbery, according to the AJC. She is a Facebook photo
One of the two told Channel 2 Action News that Urena threatened him and forced him to help her. He was arrested at school with the stolen money and a handgun on his person.
‘In the first bank I went in, she told me to give the people the notice,’ the 17-year-old said, explaining that he was scared because ‘I didn’t want to do it.’
Police said she got more and more brazen with each robbery, and said that she’s unusually successful – of all nine she’s only been denied the money once, the during the first attempt.
‘One thing we’re convinced of is she’s not going to stop,’ Rowson said during a news conference on Thursday. ‘She looks pretty average, but she is very bold.’
She did not pull a gun during any of her alleged robberies, police said.
Urena’s latest robbery before being caught was area allegedly happened on January 25 at the Hamilton State Bank in Dallas, Georgia.
Police said she entered the bank wearing a white hoodie pulled over her head and told employees she had a bomb, ordering them not to call the police.
During that hit, Rowson said she was with a thin man in his 20s who was wearing all black.