‘Black Panther’ Director Ryan Coogler Misidentified as Bank Robber, Briefly Detained

Film director Ryan Coogler must have felt like he was playing a character in one of his movies.

According to TMZ, the Creed director was briefly detained when he went to the bank to withdraw some cash. Bank employees assumed that he was committing a bank holdup when he handed a bank teller a handwritten note when submitting his withdrawal.

Employees at the Georgia bank erroneously thought Coogler was directing a robbery attempt so they called police officers on him. When the police did arrive, he was briefly placed in handcuffs.

When he approached the bank teller wearing shades and a face mask to adhere to preventing himself from catching COVID-19, he handed the teller a withdrawal slip. On the withdrawal slip, he presented a written note on the back of it. The message read, “I would like to withdraw $12,000 cash from my checking account. Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.”

Based on that, the bank teller got suspicious and alerted police as he assumed that an authentic bank robbery was taking place in front of him. When the police officers appeared at the Bank of America, they detained 2 people who were waiting outside for Coogler in an SUV. After doing so, they proceeded to head inside and ended up bringing the Fruitvale Station filmmaker out in handcuffs.