78-year-old Missouri woman arrested for robbing bank – for the third time

The last time a Missouri woman tried to rob a bank — at the age of 75 at the time — she received little more than a slap on the wrist, getting a suspended sentence and supervised probation for a year.

So it’s not all that surprising that Bonnie Gooch, now 78, might go back to the well for more water, and that’s just what the elderly woman did on Wednesday when she allegedly tried to hold up a financial institution in Pleasant Hill, according to police.


(Video: Fox4)

The Pleasant Hill Police Department said they received a call of a bank robbery in progress Wednesday afternoon at the Goppert Financial Bank, according to Fox 4 in Kansas City. Police officers were given a description of the suspect and her vehicle and they apprehended Gooch en route when they conducted a traffic stop.

Cass County prosecutors charged Gooch, who handed a bank teller a note, with stealing or attempted stealing from a financial institution, and her bond was set at $25,000.

“Obviously it was a tense situation,” Pleasant Hill Police Chief Thomas Wright told Fox 4. “But when the hands of an elderly woman come out of the car and that is who is driving the suspect vehicle, it’s a little shocking.”

“Well she’s very wily,” Wright said. “She did have an N95-type mask on. Sunglasses and plastic gloves.”

The police chief said that they planned to look into the elderly woman’s circumstances and see if she is in need of any type of services.

The Fox affiliate cited court documents to note that when Gooch hit the bank in 2020, her son called authorities and “…stated that his mother was ‘off her rocker’ and left the house, angry, saying she was going to rob a bank.”

Tom Tillison

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