Cops: Teen Bandits Used Money For Shopping

Young Women Charged With Taking $11K From Bank Also Allegedly Ate Out And Donated To Homeless

(CBS/AP)  Two young women charged with stealing nearly $11,000 in a bank heist went on a shopping spree, ate a meal and even gave money to the homeless afterward, a police detective testified Thursday, as the judge lowered the bond for one suspect.

Police Det. Brad McEntyre testified during a probable cause hearing for Heather Johnston.

Johnston, 19, and Ashley Miller, 18, the so-called Barbie Bandits, are charged with felony theft and marijuana possessions and remain in jail since the Feb. 27 heist. Miller has waived her right to the hearing.

McEntyre said the pair shopped at two upscale malls, gave their waiter a big tip after eating and went to a swank hair salon after the theft. He said Johnston had $1,000 in her bra when apprehended.

"The whole thing started out as a joke," he said. "They were laughing about robbing a bank and then things turned serious."

Magistrate Court Judge Frank Cox agreed that there was probable cause to pursue the charges against Johnston. He also agreed to reduce her $26,000 bond to $10,000.

Johnston and Miller were videotaped wearing sunglasses and laughing as they appeared to rob a Bank of America in Acworth, Ga., last month.

Police also arrested a bank teller and another man in connection with the theft, saying the heist appeared to be an inside job because of the amount of money involved.

That's why the charge is for theft and not bank robbery. The penalty for bank robbery is much steeper, police officer Wayne Delk told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After the hearing, Johnston's parents said they were unsure how they will pay her bond. They are eager to get their daughter home and will get her out of jail "as soon as we can come up with the money," her father, Edward, said.

"You think you're the average, normal, everyday American family, and then something like this happens," her mother, Lisa, said. "It's just a smack in the face."

Her parents said she simply got caught up with the wrong kind of people.

"This is certainly not the way we raised her," Lisa Johnston said.

Upon her release, Johnston will live with her parents and will be under a curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day.

[kailumego1]

Vancouverboo, such an over-dramatization, "The news media pattern (and you especially find this in movies and on television) is to make the white men the evil, sick, racist bad guys and to have a white woman and a black man as the heroes who, after overcoming a life of discrimination and poverty, succeed in victory over the evil white men."

Do you have a paranoid personality disorder????????


These degenerate depraved black boys coerced these poor white morally righteous women into committing armed robbery. Wow, I didn't realize how weak and feebleminded white women were, of which they have absolutely no control of their actions.


How do you know it was these two black defendants idea to rob the bank and not the other way around?????


So, if the two black defendants had been showcased what would have been the headline "two black teens collaborated an elaborate scheme to steal thousands in order to help aid those in their community"?????

[khed2]

toldyouso21

heres your link. You should really try google searches once and a while.. it was the first hit.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0228073bandits1.html

look at page 2 of the photo's
the dudes that planned this were not even mentioned...

[vancouverboo]

whatithink,
Sorry to make you unhappy. I was just stating the facts as originally reported in the media. You look silly when you call someone a racist because you don't like their reporting the truth. I'm not saying you are silly, just that this one post you made is silly. We all do silly things from time to time.

[whatithink-2009]

Zoltaric,

They had no choice but to charge the black guys with the same crime. At least one of the black guys is the excuse the police are giving for not seeking bank robbery charges against THESE WOMEN, NOT GIRLS as they are over 18 years olf.

I love how the headline starts with TEEN BANDITS. That sounds so very cute.

[nineoftwelve]

That is the problem with our Justice system - It shouldn't matter what race, creed, ***, poverty level, etc.... - You commit a crime (on video) and you should be punished, PERIOD!!!!!

[whatithink-2009]

Vancouverboo,

Oh, give me a break. Now the black guys planned it and MADE the poor white girls do something they would never have thought about doing if they hadn't been PART OF THE WRONG CROWD. The world's smallest violin is playing for them. You don't know who planned what and what does it matter anyway.

And, when did they state race in the article? They just showed pictures. There have been plenty of times when picture were not shown and the suspect was white or when the suspect was black and the picture was plastered everywhere or the first line in the article started with..."black male is the guilty until proven not black suspect in the case."

[theusa1st]

just more white trash that deserve jail...send the other trash to jail...stop making excuses for peoples action...

[rohink-2009]

They deserve to go to jail. At least one of the young women has parents who are making excuses for her behavior. That's part of the problem. Another problem is speculating that "if they were black or hispanic" it would be different. They aren't. The media started the whole thing by calling them the "barbie bandits" and now this article reporting on them being generous tippers and giving money to the homeless tries to get sympathy.

[smb221]

Since when did this become a race issue? They are all being charged on what they did.

And now everyone's mad that they didn't put names of the black people accused. If they had put their names in this article, people would have gotten mad and made it a race issue anyways.

[dogband]

Lowered thier bond? Why? This was a bank robbery, period. Inside job or not. Put two black or hispanic males with tatoos and piercing in their exact place, and with their exact history of crimes [minimal or none], and then reduce their bonds or charged crime.........it would never happen. I am white and middle class, and believe justice should be blind, if these ladies get reduced bonds and reduced charges, then all citizens in this exact situation should recieve similar reductions.........I'm betting this never happens evenly across the board. What a suprise.