RINGGOLD, Ga. - Police charged a Tennessee man in Thursday's foiled bank robbery that snarled traffic and startled residents along Poplar Springs Road.
The scene played around 3 p.m. when police allege Timothy Shane Kellum phoned in a bomb threat and demanded tellers place money outside the FSG Bank branch.
Instead, employees immediately called police, and within minutes Kellum, a 32-year-old from Pleasant View, Tenn., was placed in the back of a police cruiser.
There was no bomb, and Kellum never got inside the bank, said interim Ringgold Police Chief Wilburn Dycus.
"The subject said there was a bomb ... but there was no device, and we found no device," Dycus said.
It happened that Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents were investigating a suspicious package nearby. GBI sent three bomb techs to the bank, said spokesman John Bankhead. They were joined by police, FBI agents and state troopers.
It was a scary scene, said Roy Cope, the pharmacist at Highland Pharmacy who had a clear view as throngs of law enforcement swarmed the area.
"I got really worried when I saw the police officers get out with their guns drawn," Cope said.
Shortly after that, he saw police calmly walk a handcuffed Kellum to a cruiser and place him the back.
While officers sorted out whether there was a bomb, traffic was diverted and Cope's pharmacy, along with the Food Lion grocery store, were evacuated. All the FSG employees were relocated, too, Chief Dycus said.
"Everything went like it was supposed to," he said. "We had some real good cooperation from all the (law enforcement and public safety) agencies."