Former Track Star Catches Bank Robber

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 30, 1999

RALEIGH, N.C.--Authorities here say that a Raleigh bank robber's getaway failed when he was run down by a customer who happened to be a former college track star and martial arts expert.

Greg Coats, 38, chased down the suspected robber and marched him with a bag full of money still in hand back to the Centura branch after a holdup earlier this month, authorities say.

Police charged Barry Scott Kay, 40, of Henderson with armed robbery. Kay had implied he had a weapon when he demanded cash from a teller, police say.

Coats was an All-American in track and field in the 1980s at historically Black St. Augustine's College, where he majored in criminal justice. Coats says the potentially risky collar was just another day at work.

A vice president of Poindexter & Associates, a Raleigh bail bond and private investigation firm, Coats also is a bail enforcement agent and an ex-Marine with a black belt in martial arts.

Coats says he was cashing a check when the robber dashed from the bank and the teller began screaming that she had been robbed. Grabbing his handgun and handcuffs from his car, Coats pursued the robber to a neighboring parking lot.

The robber was getting into his car when Coats pulled out his gun and closed in. "I made him get out, grabbed him by the neck, slammed him to the ground and walked him back to the bank," Coats says.