Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was mistaken for bank robber and ARRESTED after a passing note to pregnant Bank of America cashier asking them to withdraw $12,000 from his account and count it ‘discreetly’
- Coogler walked into the Bank of America branch in Atlanta in January
- He passed a note to the pregnant cashier asking for $12,000 in cash
- He wrote: ‘Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet’
- The bank teller mistook the incident for an attempted robbery and alerted police
- Cops arrived and detained two people waiting for Coogler in an SUV outside
- They then went inside and put the 35-year-old director in handcuffs
- They let him go once they realized the incident was a misunderstanding
- It remains unclear why Coogler needed $12,000 in cash
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was mistaken for a bank robber and briefly arrested in January after walking into a Bank of America in Atlanta wearing sunglasses, a hat and a mask and asking the cashier to ‘discreetly’ withdraw $12,000 from his account.
The incident occurred sometime in January but was revealed by TMZ on Wednesday morning. Coogler, 35, walked into the bank wearing a green hoodie, black beanie and sunglasses.
He passed the cashier a note which read: ‘I would like to withdraw $12,000 CASH from my checking account.
It remains unclear why he needed the money, or why two others had driven him there in an SUV to retrieve it.
‘Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.’
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was mistaken for a bank robber and briefly arrested in January after walking into a Bank of America in Atlanta wearing sunglasses, a hat and a mask and asking the cashier to ‘discreetly’ withdraw $12,000 from his account
The note spooked the cashier, who was described in the police report as a ‘pregnant black woman’.
She called police claiming Coogler was a bank robber.
Police arrived and detained two people who were waiting for him in an SUV parked outside.
TMZ reports that they then went inside the bank and placed Coogler in handcuffs too.
Once they realized it was a misunderstanding, they let him go.
Coogler was furious about the mistake and demanded the badge numbers of the cops involved, according to the report.
The movie director has been in Atlanta for the last several months filming the sequel to Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
He lives in California. Coogler told Variety this morning: ‘This situation should never have happened.
‘However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on.’
The production has been besieged by cast injuries and vaccine rows.
Letitia Wright, who will reprise her role as Shuri, was severely injured while filming in August last year in Boston.
It is unclear what exactly happened, but the actress suffered a concussion and fractured shoulder while performing a stunt on-set.
In a note to the cast and crew in November last year, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito and Nate Moore of Marvel Studios called it a ‘frightening’ accident.
The sequel is due to be released on November 11, 2022. It will no doubt be a box office hit, following on from the record-breaking success of the first movie.
Fans are eager to see how the story will playout in the absence of Chadwick Boseman, the franchise’s beloved central star who died from cancer in August 2020.
The incident occurred in January at a Bank of America in Atlanta (file image)