ORLANDO, Fla. -- A convicted Orlando bank robber is accused of taking advantage of Orange County’s mandatory mask order to conceal his face during an attempted heist at a Wells Fargo bank on Monday.

Keith Earle Young, 63, is being held at the Orange County Jail on a charge of attempted robbery with a mask.

An Orlando police arrest report said Young is also a suspect in a robbery of a Wells Fargo in Winter Park on June 30.

“It appears the suspect was taking advantage of the COVID-19 protocols in wearing a mask to conceal his identity to commit crimes,” the Orlando arrest report said.

Orange County's mandatory mask order took effect June 20. The measure is aimed at curbing the escalation of the highly contagious respiratory illnesses.

Before COVID-19, bank workers would call for help if people walked in wearing masks, fearing robberies.

In the past, Young's disguise of choice was subtle, including a baseball hat and sunglasses.

That was his look in 2014 when he admitted to two Orlando-area bank robberies that year. 

He faced as much as 40 years in federal prison. He had already served time in state prison for previous bank robberies.

In his federal case, Young pleaded guilty to robbing two banks - one in Orlando and the other in Winter Park - in less than a week in August 2014.

He was sentenced in 2015 to five years in federal prison for each robbery and served both sentences at the same time.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons released Young on July 3, 2019.

Young walked into the Wells Fargo at 2434 East Colonial Drive at 10 a.m. Monday wearing a long-sleeve shirt, dark sunglasses, gray baseball hat, black gloves, and a mask described as a “white cone,” a report said.

The mask muffled his voice when he asked a teller for money.

“The male approached her window demanding money, however she could not hear what the male was saying,” police said. “The male got upset and repeated himself several times.” 

The teller reached for a button call for help.

"Don't you touch that,” he yelled, according to the report. "This is a robbery. I need all your money."

As the clerk began to comply, she noticed her manager signaling her to go to the back of the building and call police. She did.

Young left the bank before police arrived, the report said. “The male walked out of the bank towards North Bumby Avenue behind the Walgreens,” the report said.

An Orlando police detective collaborated with an FBI agent. Young’s name popped up during the investigation. They checked his Facebook and noticed a post of him wearing a black T-shirt with a Champion logo.

The shirt matched the one worn by the robber of the Wells Fargo in Winter Park on June 30.

“The suspect in the robbery that occurred in Winter Park, Florida appeared to be the same suspect in the attempted robbery of the Wells Fargo Bank in Orlando on July 6, 2020,” the report noted.

They checked a database of pawn-shop transactions and spotted one of Young making a deal at a store on East Colonial Drive two hours after the attempted robbery on Monday.

They pulled security camera footage showing a suspect wearing a “distinctive white cone shaped mask” pulling into the store’s parking lot in a Hyundai Santa Fe. He sold a power tool for $70. He showed a driver’s license identifying him as Keith Earle Young. He has a 2016 white Hyundai Santa Fe registered under his name.

Detectives closely examined the footage from the pawn shop and security video from the Orlando bank.

“Investigators also noted the shoes the suspect wore in the attempted robbery which were of a boot style with a dark tone sole, a light tone material covering the foot tied with white or very light in color laces,” the report said. “These shoes appear to match exactly to the shoes Young was wearing.”

Police found footage of him from a different pawn shop on July 4. He arrived in a Hyundai Santa Fe while wearing a cone-shaped mask.

“Young was also wearing a dark colored t-shirt with a white Nike logo on the front left breast area of the shirt,” the report said. “This Nike shirt appeared to be the same shirt the suspect in the robbery was wearing on July 6, 2020.”

They pulled surveillance footage from the Walgreens at 2420 E. Colonial Drive near the Wells Fargo on the day of the attempted robbery.

It showed a white SUV investigators suspect was Young’s Hyundai Santa Fe just southwest of the Wells Fargo.

Police noted the similarities in clothing, video footage, ownership of the SUV as reasons to charge Young. He was booked into jail Thursday.

In a court appearance Friday, a judge put a short-term delay on his $2,500 bond, meaning he can’t post bond and get out of jail right away.

That gives Winter Park police time to investigate his alleged connection to the robbery of a Wells Fargo in that city on June 30.