Armored truck robberies are wrong, but they do pay well, but don’t try it because you will likely end up in federal prison.
Orneth South, 49, and Michael Watts, 42, robbed a armored truck and got away with $1.3 million dollars cash. The robbery took less than 60 seconds, Bill Gates doesn’t even make that much cash in 60 seconds. Watts was wearing $70,000 worth of jewelry at the time of his arrest. Maybe Kanye West was right?
South has robbed armored trucks in North Carolina and Maryland. He was caught in Charlotte, NC.
On January 22, 2018, South and Watts approached the driver of an armored vehicle as he was removing cash cassettes from an ATM machine at a credit union in Salisbury, Maryland.
Watts placed a gun to the driver’s head, and disarmed him of his service weapon. Watts then grabbed the driver by the hair and ordered him to open the door of the armored vehicle. After the driver opened the door, South removed several bags of money from the vehicle, as well as ATM cassettes filled with cash.
Watts then forced the driver into the vehicle, where he used zip ties to secure the driver’s hands. The robbers then fled with the money, stealing a total of $1,324,288. The robbers went to the co-defendant’s residence in nearby Princess Anne and divided the stolen money.
On April 20, 2018, South was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, on a warrant issued as a result of the robbery. South agreed to talk to investigators and confessed to the robbery on January 22, 2018.
On January 31, 2019, co-defendant Watts, pleaded guilty to his role in the robbery. Watts was arrested on May 18, 2018, in Queens, New York on a warrant issued as a result of the robbery.
At the time of his arrest, Watts was wearing approximately $70,000 in jewelry, including a custom turtle pendant, which was purchased with the proceeds of the armored vehicle robbery. Watts also admitted using his portion of the stolen money to purchase a Mercedes S430 automobile, clothes, two tombstones, and to pay off bills and rent.
South pleaded guilty late on February 6, 2019, to robberies of two armored vehicles – one in Maryland on January 22, 2018, and one in North Carolina on February 9, 2015. In the North Carolina robbery South and two accomplices pointed a semi-automatic handgun at the guard, stole his handgun and $120,694.25 that had just been retrieved from a nearby restaurant and was in a bag slung over the guard’s shoulder.
South also has a 2007 armed robbery conviction in the Eastern District of New York.
