Suspected bank robber Edward Pemberton might have been drunk and under the influence of drugs, but he wasn't too out of it to realize that a disheveled black man walking up to a bank teller will draw unwanted attention.
So Pemberton, 44, cooked up a simple but effective plan to evade suspicion: let flowers do your talking when you plan to rob a bank.
Pemberton, known in New York City newspapers as the Bouquet Bandit, is being held for several bank robberies in the city where he used plants and neatly wrapped flowers as props during his crimes.
Pemberton was offered a plea deal that would have sent him to state prison for 7 to 14 years, but he turned it down.
In written statements released by authorities this week, Pemberton said he decided to use the posies as a prop during a 2009 bank robbery, because he was a little funky from wearing the same soiled clothes from the night before - a night that included drinking and partying:
"I picked up the plant, because if they would have seen me dirty and a male black like that, they would have gotten suspicious right away," Pemberton wrote.
I will never understand how some people's minds work.
Pemberton said he was worried about being looked at funny by bank workers. To me, a normal person may say, "Maybe I should rethink this bank robbing thing" or even "let me go home and clean up before I go to the bank and rob it."
But those aren't the thoughts that crossed Pemberton's mind. The most logical solution that occurred to him was to grab a plant to distract the teller and then rob the bank.
Grabbing a plant might have been number 8,000 on my list of solutions in this situation.
But then again, you don't get the name Bouquet Bandit without thinking outside the box.
13-Aug-10 - Well-known conservative talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger said the N-word 11 times to a caller who reached out to her for help regarding her interracial marriage.
13-Aug-10 - Well-known conservative talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger said the N-word 11 times to a caller who reached out to her for help regarding her interracial marriage.
13-Aug-10 - Former Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans resigned. Evans, though, is striking back by revealing text messages between Lt. Monique Patterson and interim police chief Ralph Goodbee.
10-Aug-10 - The niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Alveda King says that same-sex marriage will lead to "extinction" and "genocide."
09-Aug-10 - It appears that Glenn Beck enjoys the idea of comparing black people to monkeys. Beck's latest rant featured him comparing President Barack Obama's America to "the damn 'Planet of the Apes.'"
03-Aug-10 - South Africa's Dudu Tshabalala, a once-high flying executive, now says that she is being ostracized for speaking up against racial injustices at L'Oreal.
05-Aug-10 - Dr. Cornel West apparently has a bone to pick with President Barack Obama. Over time, the good Dr. West has become increasingly vocal in his critique of Obama, and even went as far as to say that Obama treated him "like a cub scout."
05-Aug-10 - Actress Maia Campbell, who was just recently videotaped performing a host of alleged drug-induced antics on a California street, has been arrested, according to Young, Black and Fabulous.
04-Aug-10 - Omar Thornton's family added some details to early reports that he was the victim of workplace racism that was ignored by higher-ups at the company.
