Bench warrant issued for 78-year-old woman who allegedly robbed suburban KC bank
An arrest warrant was issued on Tuesday for a 78-year-old suburban Kansas City woman — accused of robbing her third bank — for failure to appear in Cass County Circuit Court.
Bonnie B. Gooch, of Pleasant Hill, was charged by Cass County prosecutors in April with a single felony of stealing or attempting to steal from a financial institution. She was released from the county jail on a signature bond in June.
Gooch is accused of robbing Goppert Financial Bank in Pleasant Hill.
On April 5, around 3:15 p.m., Pleasant Hill police officers responded to a robbery in progress. They were told an older woman wearing a disguise had robbed the bank and left in a Buick with a disabled person’s license plate.
Gooch was pulled over and arrested in the parking lot of the Pleasant Hill Animal Clinic. Inside her vehicle, police reportedly found a black N-95 face mask and plastic gloves on the passenger seat. A large amount of cash in small bills was on the passenger floorboard.
During the April robbery, Gooch allegedly passed a note to a teller instructing her to hand over $13,000 in small bills and “no dye pack!”
Added was: “thank you sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.”
During an interview with the FBI, Gooch said she had no memory of what occurred. The FBI declined to pursue federal charges against Gooch, according to Cass County court documents.
Gooch was convicted of two earlier felonies for bank robberies in 2020 and 1977.
In February 2021, Gooch pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court to one felony count of stealing more than $750.
The criminal charge stemmed from the robbery of Bank of West in Lee’s Summit. A teller told investigators a shorter, older woman entered the business wearing a lime-green hat with a black wig tucked underneath.
She put a grocery bag on the counter. Then she handed the teller an orange and blue greeting card with a handwritten note inside demanding $3,000.
Gooch’s son also called police that day reporting his mother had left the home “off her rocker” and saying she was going to rob a bank, according to court documents.
Following her guilty plea, Gooch was given probation with the promise to stay out of trouble or face three years in prison. Online court records show she was discharged from that probation order in November 2021.
Court documents state Gooch was also convicted of robbing a bank in California in 1977. Further details of that criminal offense were not available in online court records on Monday.
Under Missouri law, Gooch faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted in the Pleasant Hill bank robbery.
The Star’s Jenna Thompson contributed to this report.
