Former Police Officer Arrested In Bank Robbery

A former police officer is scheduled to appear in court Friday on charges that he robbed a Johnston County.

Gregory Scott Corbett, who used to work on police forces in Selma and Clayton, was arrested Monday, federal authorities said.

He was charged with robbing a BB&T branch in Micro in late January. Authorities credit tips with leading them to a suspect.

Not much happens in this little Johnston County town. In fact, highway crews just turned on its only stoplights Monday.

So it created quite a stir when somebody robbed the town's BB&T branch bank. "It's such a sitting duck back there," said town barber Robert Dupree. "They ought to advertise when they catch them real good."

This time, the man police arrested used to be one of their own. Corbett, who lives in Four Oaks, was arrested Monday by the FBI and charged with bank robbery and federal weapons violations.

Police say bank security cameras captured him inside waving a gun, threatening to kill anyone who called police before he made his getaway.

Police say he forced four tellers into the bank's vault, and ordered them to fill a bag with money. The robber escaped with $28,000.

"I'm just amazed," said Clayton Police Chief Paul Keen. Corbett worked for Keen as a Clayton police officer, coming to the department from the Selma Police Department.

Corbett left Clayton in November 1994 to attend the Highway Patrol academy. He dropped out after only three days.

"I don't know any of the evidence, so I don't know what kind of case there is there," Keen said. "But if I had to have wagered a guess as to somebody that might do something like this, it sure would not have been him.