Career criminal charged in eastern NC bank robbery spree

Nathan Terry Bullock, 58, is charged with robbing the State Employees Credit Union at 3990 Ward Blvd. in Wilson on Dec. 9, the Southern Bank at 8315 Red Oak Blvd. in Red Oak on Jan. 3, the State Employees Credit Union at 805 Fairview Road in Rocky Mount on Jan. 3, the First Citizens Bank at 302 Northeast Blvd. in Clinton on Jan. 6 and the Southern National Bank at 101 W. 2nd St. in Kenly on Jan. 13.

"He's a serial bank robber," Capt. Todd Wells of the Nash County Sheriff's Office said during a news conference. "I think it’s disturbing to everyone involved in this. He’s disrupted a lot of people’s lives by doing what he done."

Officers from a half dozen law enforcement agencies pulled extra duty over the last month to increase security around small banks in the area before a break came in the case a week ago.

A Wayne County detention officer recognized Bullock from some bank surveillance video. On his own, he scoured through three months of booking photos until he identified the suspect who had been giving officers fits.

Interviews led investigators to Virginia, where Bullock had friends, and U.S. marshals took him into custody. Bullock is being held in the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford, Va., and area authorities expect him to be returned to North Carolina in the next week or two after he waived extradition.

Bullock has a criminal record in North Carolina dating to the mid-1970s. He was released from prison in 2010 after serving almost 20 years for armed robbery, according to Department of Public Safety Records, and he was placed on probation three years ago for a misdemeanor larceny conviction.

"He’s been back out in the community, and as you can see with these bank robberies, he’s at the same game he’d left from before he got out of prison," Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said.

Authorities said Bullock carried a weapon during the bank robberies, but he never used it to threaten anyone.

"If we don’t step in and do something, who's to say he won’t use the gun next time?" Wells said. "We don’t know how, what he was thinking, what mindset he was in."

Anthony Davis, who lives in Red Oak and works across from one of the banks that was robbed, said he can rest easier knowing Bullock is behind bars.

"I was in shock because this is a small, quiet neighborhood," Davis said.

Lt. Casey Jones of the Kenly Police Department said cooperation among the various law enforcement agencies was critical to ending the robbery spree.

"I think, if anything, it’s shown if you go to a small town and you do a serious crime, you’re not dealing with a nine-officer agency," Stone said. "It’s one team. It’s one fight. We all do the same thing."