DETROIT -- Fresh out of the police academy and assigned to the 9th (Gratiot) Precinct, 30-year-old Marcus Franklin could not resist moonlighting as a thief with a specialty in ATMs, according to a Detroit Free Press report.
Franklin is accused of robbing an armored truck on Sept. 12, 2000, of more than $750,000 as an ATM was being replenished. He also is charged with stealing more than $100,000 from two Comerica Bank ATMs on Feb. 28, 2000, and attempting to break into a third -- while still a student at the academy.
He was indicted on Oct. 28 in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He surrendered to police after the indictment was unsealed.
"We want to ensure that Marcus Franklin never wears a Detroit Police Department badge ever again," said Gary Brown, deputy chief of Professional Accountability for the Detroit Police Department.
According to the indictment, Franklin, an unnamed former employee of Guardian Armored Services, and Wallace Stinson, 44, then a Guardian employee, planned to rob a Guardian truck in Southgate. Stinson provided Franklin with two keys to the truck. At about 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, Franklin, Jamaal Clarke, 26, and an unknown person -- armed with guns -- robbed the truck of about $754,000.
Franklin's charges include bank robbery, conspiracy to commit bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime.
