Man Robs Store with Banana, Eats Evidence

John Steven Szwalla was arrested for attempted armed robbery of a computer cafe in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He approached the store owner, Bobby Ray Mabe while pointing something that was under his shirt. Mabe and a store customer jumped on Szwalla, held him down, and called police. The “weapon” turned out to be a banana! Szwalla ate the banana before the police arrived.

“And the deputy said, ‘Ah hah! He ate the evidence,’” Mabe said. “But we had the banana peel and they took a picture of it.”

John Steven Szwalla, 17, was charged with one count of attempted armed robbery. Warrants and records with the sheriff’s office list different addresses for him, with a most recent address in Clemmons.

Deputies joked about charging him with destroying evidence, said Major Brad Stanley, a spokesman for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s office.

Szwalla is in the Forsyth County Jail with bond set at $50,000.

Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Flickr user Jason Gulledge)