Leesburg police say 49-year-old Peggy Membreno tried to rob the Middleburg Bank located at 102 Catoctin Circle SE in Leesburg on Dec. 27.
Membreno entered the bank shortly before 11 a.m. and passed a robbery note to a teller, police said. But Membreno left the branch without obtaining any cash.
No weapon was displayed and no injuries were reported, authorities said.
Membreno has been arrested and is charged with attempted robbery.
She was previously charged with bank robbery in August 2005 in federal court in Alexandria. That heist also happened in Loudoun County, according to Leesburg police.
She pleaded guilty to the robbery in December 2005 and was sentenced to five years behind bars and three years of supervised released, court records say. Membreno was released from prison in December 2009, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.
Women typically make up just a small percentage of bank robbers. Only 472 female suspects were identified in bank robberies, burglaries and larcenies in 2010, according to FBI statistics. In contrast, authorities identified 6,197 male bank heist suspects.
Loudoun court records show that Membreno is in custody pending further proceedings. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8.
