Fort Worth police arrested 43-year-old Christopher Neal McKay after he tried to rob the same Wells Fargo he targeted nearly a decade earlier. The incident happened on November 20, 2025, and went viral on social media-a reminder of how some people have a hard time leaving their old crimes in the past.
In all, the incident began for McKay on March 25, 2016, when he entered the Wells Fargo at 8800 Camp Bowie West Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas. He gave a note to the teller stating that he had a gun, took an undisclosed amount of cash, and fled. Law enforcement caught up with him rather shortly. In federal court, he pleaded guilty and received 84 months in prison, to be followed three years of supervised release. He has likely been released around 2023 or 2024.
A tweet from X.
Now, jump to just last week. It was about 10 in the morning on the 20th when McKay showed up again, this time in a black hoodie and jeans. He passed another note claiming a gun and saying he’d start shooting without the money. But the tellers weren’t having it they hit the silent alarms and flat-out refused. He bolted empty-handed, just walking away on foot. Fort Worth PD folks knew him from the old case right away and had him in cuffs within a day, on the 21st. Turns out, no gun anywhere.
He’s looking at aggravated robbery charges now that’s a serious first-degree felony here in Texas plus some old warrants for stuff like skipping court or violating parole. They booked him into Tarrant County Jail, bond somewhere from $100,000 to $150,000 depending on who’s reporting. A few stories mentioned he seemed to be going through fentanyl withdrawal all shaky, sweaty, and out of it which might’ve made it easier to grab him. But that’s just from the press; the police haven’t backed that up officially.
The cops even poked fun at it on their Facebook page:
“Some habits are hard to break… This suspect tried robbing the same bank twice.”
And word is, the bank staff joked he was like a “returning customer,” per some local reports.
Things really blew up online thanks to @Dexerto, that big account with over a million followers dishing on gaming, celebs, and wild stories. On November 25, 2025, they tweeted on X
“A Texas bank robber was arrested after returning to hit the same bank he robbed nearly a decade ago.”
It racked up more than 100 likes, six reposts, 21 replies, and over 5,000 views. The post had his mugshot this white guy, 43, with scruffy gray hair, in a purple jail shirt, staring off to the side on a gray backdrop plus a funny SpongeBob meme where the character’s dressed like an old-timey thief in stripes, a mask, orange pants, running off with cash sacks.
People in the replies cracked up, tossing around lines like “loyalty program” or “same order please,” mixing in nostalgia and greed vibes. Somebody even threw in a Bible nod about avoiding greed, and there were GIFs of people messing up the same way over and over.
If you’re not up on U.S. crime stats, bank jobs have dropped big time – from more than 9,000 back in the ’90s to under 1,500 by 2023, says the FBI. Texas gets maybe 10-15% of them. And while about 30% of federal robbers slip back into crime within three years, per the U.S. Sentencing Commission, hitting the exact same spot? That’s super unusual, which is why this story popped.
It makes you think about holes in the system for helping people straighten out. That 2023 Sentencing Commission report (check it at ussc.gov/research) points out a lot of repeat guys blame it on desperation, like drug problems though for McKay, all we know is he supposedly told cops he needed cash for drugs and
“didn’t know where else to go.”
In the end, this mess with McKay is a tough example of how the justice setup can trap people in loops, where sticking to what you know just digs you deeper. With his case moving forward, maybe it’ll spark some real talk on better ways to help ex-cons land on their feet.
