Police say suspect paused from his blackjack binge to rob bank

Prosecutors claim 52-year-old Kerry Johnson said he has a gambling problem.

If the allegations against him — he was charged with felony bank robbery on Wednesday — are proven, that will be an understatement.

Johnson told Charleston, W.Va., police that he arrived at the Mardi Gras Casino in the small city of Nitro, W.Va., around 10 a.m., preparing for a day of gambling. He plunked himself down at the blackjack table, where he said hed stayed, hitting and holding, until 4:30 p.m. Police disagree. They say that around 3 p.m., he left the table for a while, leaving a $25 chip to hold his spot, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.

Police say he headed to the nearby City National Bank and robbed the place, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County.

Around 3:30 p.m., a man with a white towel wrapped around his neck and wearing a red t-shirt and a dark hat with a gold “WV” — the logo for West Virginia University — above the bill entered the bank and handed the teller there a note scribbled out on yellow legal paper.

The teller handed the man an undisclosed amount of money, but not before surveillance footage captured images of him. Then, the man drove off in a green Mazda Miata.

A few minutes after the robbery occurred, Johnson reappeared at the blackjack table, where he continued to play, police said.

Police released surveillance footage of the green Miata, along with the images from inside the bank. They received an anonymous tip that Johnson had just purchased a new Mazda Miata and that he resembled the suspect .

Some of the money that had been stolen was found at the blackjack table where Johnson had been playing.