65-Year-Old Retired Marine Foils Would-Be Bank Robbery

A would-be bank robber picked the wrong bank when he walked into a Wells Fargo and found himself face-to-face with a retired Marine in Florida on Monday.

WESH-TV

Edward Sotelo, 43, is charged with armed robbery and assault with a firearm after police say he went into the Cocoa, Fla. branch wearing a surgical mask and a hardhat and put a gun in the teller's face. That's when bystander Eugene Storley, a 65-year-old former police officer and Marine, stepped in.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Storley told him, according to Florida Today.

The two struggled until the suspect took off -- without any cash.

"He shoved me, I fell back and then he took off after the door," Storley told WESH-TV.

Police arrested Sotelo a short time later.

“I wasn’t gonna let this guy get away with anything,” Storley said. “He would have had to shoot me if worst came to worst before I’d let him hurt anybody in the bank.”

Sotelo is also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and -- because of the struggle with Storley -- battery on an elderly person. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said he's the same person wanted in connection with a similar bank robbery last week.