Jesus saves

Now, if Simon Cowell had been the bank teller in this remarkable story, it could have gotten real ugly real fast. From the Opelousas (La.) Daily World:

PORT BARRE — A kiss on the hand and Jesus are credited with preventing a bank robbery in here Thursday morning.

Police are currently seeking a petite black woman, roughly 20 years of age, standing about 4 feet, 6 to 10 inches tall, who attempted to rob the Port Barre branch of the St. Landry Bank and Trust on Saizan Street just before 11 a.m.

The brown-eyed suspect was last seen wearing a blue, zippered sweater with her medium-black hair pulled back into a ponytail.

The suspect was last seen driving a fairly new model, small, black, hatch-back car, possibly a PT Cruiser or Ford Focus.

“The car was full of dirt and mud. The teller couldn’t read the license plate,” said Port Barre Police Chief David Richard.

Richard is alerting neighboring communities to be on the lookout for the woman and her car as he doesn’t believes the suspect is from the Port Barre area.

“We are a small town. If she had been form here, the tellers would have known her,” Richard said.

According to Richard, police received a 911 call at 10:54 a.m. about a person issuing worthless checks at the bank. As a police cruiser was on patrol in the area, the first officers were on the scene within seconds of receiving the call.

“When we arrived, we discovered it was an attempted robbery,” Richard said.

According to Richard, the suspect approached a teller at the bank and presented her with a note that read: “Give me $100s and $50. I have a gun and I will kill you.”

Richard said the teller told the suspect she couldn’t give her any money and that the police were on the way.

“The teller told the suspect that what she was doing was going to ruin her life,” Richard said. “She then gave the suspect a $20 bill out of her own pocket and told her Jesus loves her.”

According to Richard, the suspect then began to cry, kissed the teller’s hand and said she needed to hear that. She then left the bank.