I am just going to say it.
It isn’t right what happened to Ryan Coogler, but I can certainly see where a misunderstanding could occur. Any man coming into the bank with a skull cap on, sunglasses, and handing a teller a handwritten note will raise some red flags. Now, the teller probably panicked. She could have saved herself and the bank some embarrassment if she had just read the note and maybe talked to her manager.
She likely racially profiled him, but it is hard to say if she would have done the same if this was a white man with the same request, but whatever the case the story has gone public and Bank of America is dealing with an upset Ryan Coogler.
Bank staffers mistakenly thought Ryan Coogler was staging a robbery — so they called cops, and the famed director actually ended up in handcuffs … briefly.
According to an Atlanta PD report, obtained by TMZ, Coogler was detained after stopping in a Bank of America to make a transaction back in January — a completely legal transaction, mind you, but that’s not how one teller took it.
Coogler walked in rocking shades and a COVID face mask — not uncommon, of course — but he handed the teller a withdrawal slip that had a note written on the back.
We’re told his message read, “I would like to withdraw $12,000 cash from my checking account. Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.” Understandable, considering the amount of money he was getting … but this led to the teller thinking something suspicious was going down, and cops were called for an attempted robbery.
When officers arrived, they detained 2 people waiting outside for Ryan in an SUV — and then went in and brought RC himself out in handcuffs.
Eventually, the police figured everything out and let Coogler and his friends go. Try to be a little understanding to the bank teller, who is a pregnant black woman. Imagine being pregnant and even thinking you might be robbed. That had to be scary for her.
Coogler said he spoke to Bank of America, and they will put it all behind them. He is in Atlanta shooting the Black Panther sequel. I would like to know what exactly caused the flag. Because let’s be honest $12k is nothing to sneeze at but not like he was asking for $120k.
Flip the pages for the note he wrote for the teller that caused all the commotion.