Bank robbery suspect’s family says drugs drove her
Mother, brother point to an addiction that began years ago.
BOYNTON BEACH — Sonya Eliza b e t h Cl a rk ’s f a mily does n’t know for sure what would cause the 52-year-old Boynton Beach woman to rob a bank, as police have accused her of, but they suspect it involves drugs.
“It’s a terrible story,” Clark’s brother, Steve Clark, told The Palm Beach Post from Texas. “It’s a drug issue that’s happening all over the country.”
He suspec ts she was out of money and needed it for drugs, so she got desperate.
Steve Clark said his sister works for a moving company. She lives in an apartment in Boynton Beach just west of Interstate 95 north of Woolbright Road.
The F BI a r re s t e d Cl a r k o n Wednesday on a bank robbery charge in a Monday morning robbery in Fort Lauderdale. Investigators say she demanded money from a TD Bank employee while customers were in the bank. No one was injured.
“This is a robbery,” she said, court documents show.
“Smile and act naturally. I am armed and won’t hesitate to use my weapon, so don’t act like a hero.”
Clark took about $600 from the bank and later admitted to the robbery, the FBI said.
Clark is believed to have also robbed a Boynton Beach TD Bank on Nov. 2, authorities said. However, she has not been charged in that case.
I n t h a t ro b b e r y, a woman entered the bank on West Boyn- ton Beach Boulevard west of Congress Avenue and handed a bank teller a note demanding cash. She told the teller she was armed, but witnesses did not see a weapon. The woman left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money, according to the FBI.
Clark came to Florida in the late 1980s because she was having trouble finding a job, said her mother, Sylvia Clark, who lives in New York.
She said her daughter first became addicted to drugs years ago when she received teeth implants. First it was painkillers. Then her addiction developed.
“It’s a struggle. People take drugs, and they struggle forever. They get better. They promise you they’re better, and in the end they don’t have the willpower,” Sylvia Clark said.