EAST BRAINERD, Tenn.–Two men here have been charged with robbing a branch of Scenic Community CU after police located them using a GPS tracking device that had been hidden in the stolen cash.
The two suspects, Nicholas Cheaton and Stephan V. Beasley Jr., have been charged with bank robbery. Police said the two men entered the credit union with bandanas over their faces while there was one teller and one member in the front of the credit union. The Chattanoogan reported that one of the men jumped over the counter and took money from the cash drawer, and then placed it in a backpack he had brought with him.
Police said the same man then entered SCCU’s vault area and stole a teller register box, according to the Chattanoogan. The other robber remained in the branch lobby holding a member at gunpoint until both men ran from the branch.
Police said that neither of the robbers was aware a GPS tracking device had been concealed in one of the stacks of $20 bills taken from the cash drawer. There was also another GPS tracking device hidden inside the teller box.
The alarm company immediately called police and updated the officers on the suspects' real-time location, the Chattanoogan reported. Using that information, police tracked the robbers to an apartment complex where they found a third person, Cheywan Copeland, placing a green backback in a trash can. Inside that backpack was the GPS tracking device from the banded $20 bills and was the only item in the backpack.
According to police Copeland denied knowing either Cheaton or Beasley, but police said that earlier in the day she had dropped Cheaton off for a meeting with his federal probation officer. She has also been charged.