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March 31, 2009

‘Bank robbery gone bad’

28-year-old robs Hometown Bank in Corbin

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor



Before being hauled away in a police car, 28-year-old George Nathan Lyttle told reporters he “never meant to even try to scare or hurt anybody” when he robbed Hometown Bank Monday morning.

“It was just about the money,” he said.

The robbery occurred Monday morning at the Hometown Bank at 501 Master Street in Corbin.

Lyttle called his attempt a “bank robbery gone bad.”

“Yes I did (rob the bank), but I didn’t successfully rob it, because here I am in handcuffs,” he said. He told reporters he committed the crime, “because I’m hurting for money, my family’s hurting for money. We’re in a time that’s getting ready to be a depression, and I was just wanting to be prepared for it.”

Lyttle allegedly entered the bank at about 10:20 a.m. Monday wearing a black hooded jacket with the words “New York” written on the back. Bank surveillance video showed that it took Lyttle less than a minute to flash a loaded .38 revolver to bank tellers and walk away with an undisclosed amount of cash.

“He basically left walking from the bank in a calm manner,” said Corbin Police Captain Tim Helton. “He crossed between some yards, to wherever he had parked his vehicle.”

A customer who showed up at the bank just after the robbery had spotted Lyttle getting into a car, and gave a vehicle description to police.

About 45 minutes later, Helton said a car matching the description was spotted by Patrolman Rick Baker pulling into the Texaco station on U.S. 25W in North Corbin. The woman driving the car turned out to be Lyttle’s sister.

“She was bad nervous and as she was going up to the store, she was dropping money, $50 bills behind her,” Baker said. “... The more I talked to her, the more nervous she was. I asked her for her name and she kept giving me different names, different Social Security numbers, so we went ahead and placed her under arrest for giving a false name.”

Police found even more $50 bills stuffed in the passenger seat of the car. The woman eventually told police her brother had robbed a bank and said they could find him at a relative’s home in the Northfield Station Apartments.

“He had actually gone home to their apartment and she had come back out in the car,” Baker said. “She went out to the store to get cigarettes. She should have left well enough alone.”

Officers with Kentucky State Police, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department and Corbin Police surrounded the apartments and entered the residence. Police recovered a revolver from the apartment believed to have been used in the robbery.

“He was in the apartment,” Helton said. “He was found hiding in a bedroom closet under a large amount of clothes. He went very peacefully and without any type of incident.”

Lyttle is being charged with first-degree robbery, theft by unlawful taking over $300 and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for threatening the bank tellers.

He will face charges in Knox County, where the bank is located.

When asked if the money from the robbery was recovered, Helton said only that “pieces of evidence were collected.”

He also wouldn’t confirm if Lyttle had given a confession to police.

“There were some interviews conducted at the police department with him but I’m not at liberty to say what was said,” Helton said.

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