After spending the night on Sept. 9 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Raleigh, N.C., Navarro sent a rambling 690-word text message at 2:20 a.m. on Sept. 10 to URW FCU President/CEO Cheryl Doss:

"Hey First I want to say I'm so sorry. I know that can't fix anything. 5 months ago I got held at gunpoint leaving a convenient store on north main by 3 individuals. I was told if I didn't pay they would kill me. I was going to quit everything and just move but then they threatened to hurt my family. So I had no choice but to stay and make a plan to give them I gave them 600 k/200k 3 months straight. They left me alone and promised not to hurt me or my family," the message read, according to court documents.

Authorities did not say whether they investigated the veracity of his claim.

He also apologized for his theft and claimed in his text that he put some of the money back after he sold various items, money he made from his landscaping business and other sources, but it only amounted to $70,000. Although he took responsibility for the embezzlement, he decided to "disappear," and promised to pay the stolen money back years from now and drop it off at the credit union. He also admitted to using the counterfeit money and asked that they check the teller drawers so that the phony cash would not end up in the hands of members.

"Just please count the drawers and make sure the members don't touch any of it. It will be a huge disaster and I'm to blame. No one else," Navarro's text read.

He made multiple orders of the prop money from July 2017 to August 2018, court records showed.

During an investigation, police found more than 50 stacks of $100 counterfeit bills at the branches. The fake dollars were concealed by genuine $100 bills placed at the top and bottom of each stack. During a police search of Navarro's apartment they found a picture of him displayed on his computer with thousands of dollars in cash, bottles of liquor, jewelry and wrapped gifts on a table.

On March 31, 2021, the former head teller was captured and arrested after Durham, N.C., police officers responded to a disturbance of gunshots at Navarro's apartment where they spotted three spent ammunition cartridges and saw Navarro's face covered in blood. Though he attempted to flee, police stopped him and transported Navarro to a hospital for treatment, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, N.C.

After obtaining a search warrant, police found more than 4,000 grams of cocaine, 1,263 grams of marijuana, two assault-style rifles, two pistols, a ballistic vest, thousands of dollars in cash, two electronic money counters, and multiple identification cards with Navarro's picture and several variations of his name and dates of birth.

Navarro told investigators that two men came to his apartment, drew their guns and demanded money. He also claimed that he was struck in the head with a gun and tied up with a cord, according to court documents.

Initially, Navarro identified himself as Juan Martinez and told investigators he had been using various names and dates of birth. But he later acknowledged his real name and that he worked at the credit union for 10 years. He also told police he was trafficking in drugs to pay back the funds he had stolen from the credit union.