It was supposed to be a magical trip aboard a Disney cruise ship for 37-year-old Cedrick Royce Swinson, his girlfriend and her two children.
Instead, the Charlotte, N.C., man is in jail on charges of carrying out a credit union robbery Thursday in Satellite Beach. Investigators say Swinson could not come up with the final balance owed for the cruise, and he felt "pressured" to fulfill his promise to buy tickets for the long-planned excursion.
"It's a bizarre set of circumstances," said Cmdr. Brad Hodge of the Satellite Beach Police Department.
Satellite Beach police said Swinson and his girlfriend drove overnight to Brevard County to take the cruise when he discovered the cash for his final payment was not available for withdrawal.
"He claimed he had money in the bank but that he couldn't get access to it or that they had a hold on it," Hodge said.
"He said he felt pressured to follow through with his promise to take (the girlfriend and her two children) on a Disney cruise and decided to rob the credit union."
The robbery happened at about 10:40 a.m. at the Navy Federal Credit Union in the Atlantic Shopping Plaza.
No one was hurt.
Satellite Beach police — alerted by a bank alarm — and deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office responded within minutes and set up a perimeter along the commercial strip.
Witnesses told police that the robber strolled into the bank, walked past the customer service agents and slid over a note demanding cash.
"He put his hand into his sweatjacket pocket as if to indicate that he had a weapon," Holdge said.
Hodge said Swinson, wearing a cap and sweatsuit, then left the building and got into a white sport utility vehicle where his girlfriend and her two children, ages 6 and 11, were waiting inside.
Satellite Beach spotted a similar-looking sport utility vehicle about five minutes later as it headed west on the Pineda Causeway.
Officers, with weapons drawn, took Swinson into custody. No weapons were found in the vehicle, but officers recovered cash.
Police questioned the girlfriend but do not believe she knew of Swinson's plan.
"She was horrified and the children were upset. They watched as we took him into custody. They drove here overnight from Charlotte for a cruise. But they didn't know he was going to do this," Hodge said, adding that police were searching Swinson's bank records to verify his claims.
Read More and vSee Video... http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/03/credit-union-robbery-disney-cruise-tickets/2131825/
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