The former United Nations worker-turned-journalist-turned alleged bank robber used a note saying “Thank you” as he repeatedly struck during his Monday lunch breaks, police sources told The Post on Tuesday.
Abdullahi Shuaibu, 53, of Queens, made off with about $10,000 in cash during a crime spree in the Upper East Side neighborhood around the UN that began Feb. 27, cops said.
In each of two successful heists, he showed the teller a note that said, “Give me $5,000, Thank you,” sources said.
Shuaibu also allegedly left two banks empty-handed before getting busted on Monday, following a failed robbery at the HSBC branch at Third Avenue and East 63rd Street around 2:30 p.m.
Teller Rani Ahme, 50, said a “regular guy” in a blazer slid her a note but “did not let go of it.”
“I asked, ‘How can I help you?’ and he said, ‘Check it, check it,’ looking at the note, but he did not let go of the note,” she said.
“I said — very loud — ‘I will need some ID, sir,’ and he looked around and pulled the note back and moved to the right.”
Ahme said she “got scared” and ducked into the rear of the bank to alert her boss, adding: “When we came out together, he was gone.”
Police sources said Shuaibu confessed following his arrest, admitting that he spent all the stolen money paying bills.