Benanti and Witham allegedly forced Ziegler, his wife and their teenage son in their car, and demanded the CEO go to the credit union to retrieve an undetermined amount of money to secure the release of his family.

When Ziegler took longer than the suspects anticipated, they abandoned the plan and released their hostages unharmed in a parking lot. They fled the scene without the money.

The story of the robbery was the #7 most read on CU Times in 2015.

On July 7, a SmartBank employee and his family were allegedly forced from their home and held at gunpoint by Witham and Benanti.

The employee and his family were taken to a SmartBank branch in Knoxville where the employee was coerced to remove an undisclosed amount of money, which was provided to the robbers.

And on Oct. 21, Witham and Benanti alleged forced an employee of the $106 million Northeast Community Credit Union and her minor son to help the suspects rob the cooperative. According to local media reports, the suspects did not get away with any money.

Although in all of these cases Witham and Benanti allegedly threatened employees and their family members with violence, no victims were injured.

Witham and Benanti were charged with a 15-count indictment that included two counts of attempted armed bank extortion, once count of armed bank extortion, three counts of carjacking, two counts of brandishing a fireman during an attempted bank extortion, one count of brandishing a firearm during a bank extortion, three counts of brandishing a firearm during a carjacking, and three counts of possession a firearm as convicted felon.

About 20 law enforcement agencies from Tennessee and North Carolina were involved in the case, according to the FBI in Knoxville.