Bank robbery suspect lied about her kids being hostages to pull off NC heist, feds say
A woman known as the “Pink Lady Bandit” who is accused of robbing a string of banks up the East Coast in 2019 has been sentenced to prison in North Carolina.
Circe Nena Baez, 38, was sentenced to three and a half years in the Eastern District of North Carolina after she pleaded guilty to bank robbery charges in November, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. The FBI previously dubbed her the “Pink Lady Bandit” because she reportedly carried a bright pink purse during some of the heists.
Baez is from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said the robberies took place in July 2019 at banks in Pennsylvania, Delaware and two locations in North Carolina — Hamlet and Ayden.
Hamlet is a city of roughly 6,000 people in Richmond County near the South Carolina border. Ayden is in Pitt County east of Raleigh and has about 5,000 residents.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Baez’s prison sentence is tied to the robbery at Southern Bank in Ayden on July 24, 2019. Police said a woman entered the bank between 4:10 and 4:15 p.m. ET clad in black and white pants, a black tank top and hat while carrying a bright pink purse.
“(She) handed a note to the bank teller demanding money,” prosecutors said. “The note also threatened that Baez’s children were being held hostage. The bank teller gave $2,494 to Baez who then left the bank.”
The woman, who investigators later identified as Baez, then met up with her alleged getaway driver — Alexis Morales, according to the news release.
Law enforcement later determined there were “no children were held hostage as part of the robbery,” prosecutors said.
Baez and Morales were picked up by the FBI at Charlotte Speedway Inn & Suites several days after the robbery on July 28, 2019. The hotel manager reportedly turned them in after he recognized them in a photo. According to the FBI, they were jailed under a $4 million bond each.
A grand jury indicted Baez and Morales in July 2020, court filings show. Baez pleaded guilty in November, and Morales followed suit in December.
As part of her sentence, Baez will have to serve three years of supervised release and pay $5,399 in restitution to the banks she is accused of robbing. The judge recommended she serve her sentence at a facility close to her family in Orlando, Florida.
Morales is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Bank robbery suspect lied about her kids being hostages to pull off NC heist, feds say."
