A California man allegedly robbed a bank, fought the cops and stashed cash and drugs in his rectum the day after he was released from prison, where he had served a brief bid for another robbery two years earlier.
Eric Walter Gray, 53, was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of bank robbery and forced accompaniment for the May 8 affair, in which he’s accused of busting into a BMO branch on La Palma Ave at about 4:45 p.m. and announcing he had a gun and wanted cash, according to the Orange County Register.
The teller handed over the money, which Gray stuffed in his pockets before ordering the bank manager and two other employees into a storage room, FBI Special Agent Trevor Twitchell said.
He eventually let the pair of workers go, but held the manager hostage for about an hour, the agent added.
He later surrendered to the cops.
Authorities brought him to the Anaheim Police Department, where they searched him and found out he’d hidden “cash and narcotics in his rectal cavity,” Twitchell said, according to the Register.
Cops thought he might have more contraband on him — so they brought him to a hospital for a CT scan.
But Gray wouldn’t go quietly, and “repeatedly attempted to escape and fought with officers, resulting in multiple injuries to the officers involved,” the agent wrote in an affidavit.
The career criminal — who has a “lengthy criminal history that includes, but is not limited to, grand theft auto, robbery, sexual battery and narcotics-related offenses” — had been released from the notorious San Quentin State Prison just a day before his wild escapade, the FBI said.
He had been sentenced to two years in the state prison for another robbery in October 2022, the Register said.
State authorities initially hit him with a slew of charges for the May robbery, including three counts of kidnapping to commit robbery, two counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery, three counts of resisting arrest and a count of escape by someone in custody with a use of force, the Register said.
But the Orange County District Attorney dropped the charges earlier this month.
The feds filed their own charges quickly afterward, the outlet added.
Gray — who is being held without bond — will be arraigned June 24.
