MIAMI – The FBI says a 41-year-old Miami attorney is a “serial bank robber" who tried to rob five banks in the last three weeks before being arrested on his way to another bank.
A criminal complaint filed Wednesday in federal court said Aaron Honaker, 41, successfully robbed only two of the banks for a total of $1,850.
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A police detective spotted Honaker driving in Coral Gables on Tuesday evening and took him into custody, the Miami Herald reported. Inside the vehicle, police found a hammer and demand notes.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to detain Honaker, who appeared at a first appearance in federal magistrate count Wednesday, the newspaper reported. A bond hearing is scheduled for Friday. He is represented by the federal public defender's office.
He was charged by criminal complaint, which means prosecutors only have to show probable cause to move forward with the case. If a judge makes that finding, the U.S. Attorney's Office will then seek a grand jury indictment charging him with the bank robberies. He would then be arraigned and enter a plea.
Honaker's LinkedIn page and Florida Bar profile say he’s with the Coral Gables-based firm of Martinez Morales. But the firm's partner Raul Morales told the Herald that Honaker disappeared two years ago and never returned to work.
Both profiles also claim Honaker graduated from Duke University School of Law in 2006, but the school told the newspaper there is no record that he ever went there. Other online sources including a Wake Forest University alumni page say Honaker graduated from Wake Forest School of Law.
The complaint says Honaker sat in the lobby at a Coral Gables Citibank branch on Sept. 30 before eventually handing the teller a note demanding $10,000 and warning her not to touch the alarm or call police. She told him she did not have money and he left with the note.
On Oct. 3, Honaker went to Chase bank in Aventura, he handed a teller a note requesting that all the $50 and $100 bills in the drawer to be placed in an envelope, the complaint said. The teller complied and he left with $1,050.
Two days later, the complaint said Honaker handed a Wells Fargo teller a note that said, “Keep calm and give me all the money in the drawer. I have a gun.” When the teller said she had trouble with English as an excuse to talk to a manager, Honaker left the bank.
On Oct. 10, Honaker asked for $50s and $100s again at a Chase bank in Coral Gables. He left with $800.
Five days later, Honaker’s note confused the teller at the HSBC branch in Coral Gables. She glanced at the note “without realizing its true meaning," and asked Honake to fill out a withdrawal slip because she needed an account number. Honaker wrote on a withdrawal slip: “Read the note." She then told him they keep the cash in a machine. He left without money, the complaint said.