Police in South Carolina arrested a former RBC and Morgan Stanley financial advisor on charges of armed robbery after he allegedly held up a bank and fled with more than $8,700, according to published reports.
Local news outlets including the Post and Courier in Charleston said an arrest warrant affidavit by Mount Pleasant police revealed that Scott Charles Tunis, 43, walked into a Truist Bank on Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant on Dec. 2 wearing a dark hoodie, blue baseball hat and face mask, and carrying what appeared to be a homemade bomb in one hand and a walkie talkie in the other, and ordered the teller to empty their tills.
The report said Tunis fled with more than $8,700 on a bicycle, which he abandoned for a black GMC Acadia. He left behind the ball cap, mask and hoodie.
The affidavit, according to the Post and Courier, noted that in the days after the incident, Tunis traveled to grocers and drug stores across the state to obtain money orders.
He was arrested on Dec. 7 and charged with one count of armed robbery and one count of bomb or replica threat with a hoax device, according to a tweet from the Mount Pleasant Police Department after the arrest. The tweet thanked the public and the media for aiding in the identification and arrest of Tunis.
On Friday, Tunis appeared at a bail hearing before Magistrate Nicholas Clekis who denied bail, the Post and Courier said. He is being held at the Charleston County Detention Center.
Charleston attorney Nick Theos represented Tunis at the bail hearing where he noted that Tunis, a graduate of Penn State and Boston University, is a financial advisor and investor who trades stocks and commodities, the report said.
Tunis lived and worked in Lancaster, Penn., before relocating to Charleston four years ago with his wife, Karissa, who also attended the hearing with a neighbor. The couple has five children, including a 6-month-old baby, the report said.
Theos could not be reached for comment on Monday.
The Post and Courier said detective Kenneth Clark of the Mount Pleasant Police Department told them that Tunis confessed to the charges during a lengthy Dec. 7 interview with law enforcement.