Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was mistaken for a bank robber in an Atlanta bank after asking to withdraw $12,000 in cash from the Bank of America branch. 

According to TMZ, in January, a BoA teller at an Atlanta branch believed that Coogler was trying to stick up and bank and had law enforcement handcuff and detain the filmmaker as a suspect.

The Academy Award nominee has been spending time in Georgia over the last year, as he is filming the sequel to his blockbuster Marvel film, Black Panther.

He went into the bank and asked to withdraw $12,000 from his checking account. The Judas and the Black Messiah director came into the bank with dark shades, a beanie, and a COVID mask and slipped a discreet note to the teller to ask for the money.

The alleged note 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.”

The teller, described as a Black pregnant woman, attempted to complete the transaction on her end, but instead of it being processed, an alert went off and prompted her to tell her supervisor that Coogler was trying to rob the bank, prompting them to call the police. 

The officers arrived and detained two individuals waiting for Coogler at his SUV. All three men were placed in handcuffs and arrested. However, the officers recognized that Coogler had committed no crime. 

Because of the mix-up, he took down the badge numbers of the arresting officers.  Coogler recently talked about the mistake, saying, “This situation should never have happened. Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction. And we have moved on.”