‘Bluetooth Bandit’ and getaway driving sister robbed banks in NC, Tennessee, feds say

A middle-aged man wearing glasses and a baseball cap with his face covered strolled into a bank on the Outer Banks on a Tuesday morning in October and came out with $15,000 in cash, according to federal prosecutors and local law enforcement officials.

One month later, he did it again — this time at a bank in eastern Tennessee while wearing a Bluetooth headset, local media outlets reported. When a third bank in a neighboring town was hit, the FBI coined the nickname “Bluetooth Bandit” for him.

Now prosecutors say they have their man.

Charles Pingley, 52, of North Carolina was indicted last week on federal conspiracy and bank robbery charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Tennessee said Friday in a news release. Pingley’s sister, 50-year-old Loretta Johnson of Maryville, Tennessee, has also been charged.

The pair is accused of robbing at least three banks over the course of nearly eight weeks last year, making off with a combined $46,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

A defense attorney for Johnson declined to comment Friday, and counsel information for Pingley was not available.

During the first robbery on Oct. 6, someone entered the First Citizens Bank in Carolina Beach on the coast of North Carolina around 11:30 a.m. wearing a baseball cap with the “CAT” logo, a long-sleeve T-shirt and faded blue jeans, the Carolina Beach Police Department said in a news release at the time.

He demanded money and fled on foot before getting into the passenger side of a four-door SUV. According to police, the man was “aided by an accomplice described as the ‘getaway driver.’”

Prosecutors said Friday that Pingley and his sister got away with $15,000 in cash that day.

On Nov. 5 at 12:30 p.m., a man in his 40s or 50s entered the Foothills Credit Union in Lenoir City, Tennessee, wearing glasses and covering his face with a blue gaiter, WATE reported. He was clad in a blue hat and blue jeans and “was also wearing a Bluetooth headset during the robbery,” according to the TV station. Prosecutors said the haul was around $9,000 in cash.

Three weeks later on Nov. 27, a man with a gaiter and camouflage hat with the “CAT” logo robbed Simmons Bank in nearby Vonore, the Johnson City Press reported. He took $22,000 in cash from the bank teller, prosecutors said Friday.

According to the newspaper, the suspect was again wearing a Bluetooth headset.

The FBI and law enforcement agencies in North Carolina and Tennessee aided in the investigation. It’s unclear how they tied Pingley and Johnson to the robberies.

A criminal complaint against the brother-sister duo was filed in December, court filings show, and a grand jury indicted them Feb. 17 on one count of conspiracy to commit bank robbery and two counts of bank robbery. A trial date has been set for April 27, prosecutors said.

If convicted on the conspiracy charges, Pingley and Johnson face up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. If they’re convicted on the bank robbery charges, prosecutors said they face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each count.