A new breed of bank robbers are going to more dramatic lengths in their robbery attempts. INSIDE EDITION reports on the outrageous costumes and other tactics.
She's called "The Underwear Bandit" because of a bizarre mask. Another robber holding fresh flowers was nicknamed "The Bouquet Bandit." And another guy even wore a Darth Vader costume while he held up a bank.
They're all part of a strange new crime trend—robbers dressing up in wacky disguises.
"The Underwear Bandit" struck an Oklahoma McDonald's wearing a blonde wig, what police say, is actually a girdle held together with paperclips.
Surveillance video showed her reaching through the drive-thru window and using her very own key to open the cash register. If this sounds like an inside job to you, you're right. Cops have arrested 51-year-old Sharon Lain, a former night manager at the restaurant who was fired last month. They say she probably designed the underwear mask using whatever she could find around her house.
Then there's "The Bouquet Bandit," who surprised a teller at a bank in Manhattan by presenting her with a lovely bouquet of fresh flowers.
But he wasn't trying to get a date. He demanded all the fifty and one-hundred dollar bills in the cash drawer.
Surveillance photo was taken of the "Bouquet Bandit," who's identified as 44-year-old Edward Pemberton. He now says, "I never want to see flowers again. They're the thing that did me in."
Cops say they lifted his fingerprints from that lovely bouquet of flowers.
But the search is still on for the thug dressed up like Star Wars villain Darth Vader who robbed a bank in Long Island, New York. He even wore a full cape and dramatically got down on one knee to point a real gun at tellers.
So why all the wacky disguises for these ordinary robberies?
Bill Daly, Senior VP at Control Risks Group said, "Certainly robbers have come a long way from wearing the old tradtional ski mask, and are becoming more creative."