A police department has advice — don’t rob a bank and then do a TV interview

Don’t try robbing a bank, but if you do, just make sure you don’t start talking to a local TV station soon after about traffic at a nearby intersection.

That’s some advice from the Lawrenceville Police Department in Georgia, which shared some knowledge on Facebook this afternoon for any criminals who might be reading its post.

“It’s not often that we in Law Enforcement give criminals advice on committing criminal acts, but we felt compelled to do so after a recent event,” the department wrote. “Please pay attention.”

That recent event: Eric Rivers allegedly robbed at least two banks in Gwinnett County, Ga., within the last few weeks — and then decided to speak to a CBS46 reporter on-camera about traffic, police told CBS46.

Rivers spoke to the reporter, Ashley Thompson, after police say he robbed a Chase Bank earlier that day. Police said a bank manager told them the alleged bank robber was seen approaching a CBS46 news truck, so police contacted Thompson to get information about who she spoke to.

That information helped police find and arrest Rivers, who gave his name to Thompson.

The Lawrenceville Police Department wrote that Rivers, who they say was in the area looking for other banks to rob, might have made “our job too easy.”

So that’s why it gave such seemingly specific advice.

“This advice is extremely important so again, please pay attention. When after having robbed several banks and you are at another bank casing the place for an additional robbery and are approached by a news crew in the parking lot (covering a completely different story by the way),” the police department wrote, “DO NOT stop and agree to an interview with said news crew. The news anchor might be pretty, but fight the urge and keep walking.

“You see, when you accept an interview and provide them with your real name it actually makes our job too easy. We will find you anyway, but we do like a little more difficult investigation on occasion.”