It’s Valentine’s Day and if you’re lucky (unlucky) enough to be single, you’ve probably scoured dating apps looking for a little romance.
A North Attleboro, Massachusetts, woman made a date with a man she met online. They agreed to meet and the woman picked up Christopher Castillo.
Prior to the date, Castillo asked the woman to drive him to the Bristol County Savings Bank in North Attleboro. What happened next could be the most epic first date “worst date” in history.
It all started, the woman told police, when she picked up Castillo from his parents’ home in Chepachet, Rhode Island, and drove him 30 minutes east toward North Attleboro, Massachusetts. She said he drank wine in the passenger seat of her Nissan Maxima (which is also illegal, but he wasn’t charged for that one).
The two had never met in person before that fateful day in 2016, she told police. So why would she think anything was wrong when he told her to pull over as they approached a bank?
He got out of her car and left her there alone for a few minutes. Then, suddenly, he came running back, sweating with sunglasses, a hat, a gun and $1,000 cash in hand, the woman said.
“F**king go,” he told her.
She “panicked,” she told police, so she did as she was told.
Inside the bank, Castillo told the teller he was “really hurting.” She gave him the money and ran to the car where his hapless getaway driver was waiting patiently to go on a date.
His accidental accomplice obeyed at first, but once she spotted flashing sirens from North Attleboro Police cruisers on their tail, she immediately pulled over and walked away from the car.
Castillo stayed inside and ducked from police.
Police pulled Castillo out of his hapless date’s car as he “violently struggled,” spit on them and told them his gun wasn’t loaded, according to the district attorney’s office.
After he was subdued and handcuffed, police searched the car and found a .44 caliber handgun — an antique belonging to Castillo’s stepfather — and the hat and sunglasses that matched the description of what the robber was wearing.
Oh, and that $1,000 — police found that in Castillo’s wallet.
She’s got a long wait for date #2. Castillo got five years in prison for his exploits.
The woman was never charged in the case. Authorities apparently believed she had been punished enough.
Someone my age remembers “computer dating,” where you answered a bunch of stupid questions and the dating company pretended to find matches for you using some kind of computer. It wasn’t entirely illegitimate, I’m sure. But the $300 bucks I paid in 1979-dollars were a waste. I probably could have done better at a lonely-hearts dance.
I guess this whole idea of “romance” is lost on today’s youth. It’s a text, a meet, maybe a drink, and then bouncy-bouncy. Sounds boring, but what do I know?
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