Homeless Topeka woman told FBI 'she robbed a bank to get money to survive'
A homeless woman told the FBI that she was the one who robbed a Topeka bank in September.
A federal grand jury indicted Rodshell Nicole Mays on one count of bank robbery, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, for the Sept. 25 robbery of the Capitol Federal bank branch at S.W. 12th Street and Topeka Boulevard.
An affidavit by an FBI agent filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka states that Mays admitted she stole the money, and explained why she did it.
She told investigators that after being released from the women's prison, she had become homeless and readdicted to cocaine.
"Mays stated she had nowhere to go and was homeless and was not going to resort to prostitution and/or living on the streets (homeless), so she robbed a bank to get money to survive," the agent wrote.
'Please don't make me shoot you'
The bank teller told investigators that the robber said, "I will shoot you," "please don't make me shoot you" and "they will kill me if I don't get this money."
Mays later admitted to telling the teller, "Don't make me shoot you." But she also said she didn't have a gun, instead pretending that a hairbrush hidden inside a brown paper bag was a gun.
The FBI got help from a pair of Crime Stoppers tips naming the bank robber as "Nikki." The tipsters said she had recently been released from Topeka Correctional Facility, had been staying at a shelter near the bank branch and had visited a local mental health provider.
An FBI agent then identified Mays through checking law enforcement databases for anyone with a name, alias or nickname of "Nikki" who had been incarcerated in the women's prison.
Kansas Department of Corrections Records show Mays spent nearly six years in prison in the 1990s after a 1990 Shawnee County robbery conviction. She was later convicted of two additional 2014 robberies, and was in prison until being paroled this spring.
A search warrant for the GPS location of her phone helped investigators find Mays at a homeless shelter or women's shelter in Missouri.
After her arrest, Mays agreed to talk to investigators, providing them "a full confession and admission to committing the bank robbery."
Woman says she wasn't equipped for success after incarceration
"Mays explained the reason why she had committed the bank robbery was because when she was released from prison and her release plan into society after being locked up for such a long time was not set in a way to make her successful," the FBI agent wrote. "Mays stated her addictions to cocaine and her inner circle of friends/family got her back to using cocaine and from there she began to spiral out of control."
She indicated she was high at the time of the bank robbery, describing it as "a drug binge."
"Mays stated she had nowhere to go and was homeless and was not going to resort to prostitution and/or living on the streets (homeless), so she robbed a bank to get money to survive," the agent wrote. "The United States currency taken in the bank robbery was used to support Mays' cocaine addiction, motels and Uber rides to Lawrence, Kansas, and to Harrisonville Missouri."
Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Homeless Topeka woman told FBI she robbed a Capitol Federal bank
