Crime & Safety

Serial Bandit Linked to Oak Lawn Bank Robbery

The helmet-wearing bandit suspected of robbing the Chase Bank in Oak Lawn may also have struck a Chicago bank in April.

—and it appears he may have struck before.

, a white male wearing a black motorcycle helmet robbed the Chase Bank at 5704 W. 95th St. at 10:11 a.m. Witnesses said the bandit approached a teller window wielding a small black handgun and got away with an undisclosed amount of money.

A man using a similar disguise—a black motorcycle helmet—is suspected of robbing a Citibank branch at 5674 S. Archer Ave., in Chicago, on April 6. The FBI has linked him to the Oak Lawn robbery.

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Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Oak Lawn police said the bandit might also have an accomplice. Witnesses reported seeing the robber getting into a newer black car that was last seen driving south on Major Avenue. Witnesses were unable to get a good look at the driver.

The description from the Citibank robbery provided on BanditTrackerChicago describes the suspected bandit as a white male, between 5-feet, 8-inches and 5-feet, 9-inches tall. The helmeted bandit wore white gym shoes in the Citibank robbery; witnesses to Thursday’s robbery at the Chase Bank in Oak Lawn said the helmeted robber wore black clothing.

FBI officials categorize the Citibank as a “takeover robbery”—where bank employees and customers are ordered to the floor or herded to the back of the bank or vault while it’s being robbed.

Division Chief Michael Kaufmann, spokesman for the Oak Lawn Police Department, said that Thursday’s robbery of the Chase Bank in Oak Lawn was not considered a takeover robbery.

This is the second Chase bank branch robbed in Oak Lawn in the past year, and the second local bank robbed in 2011.

FBI agents apprehended the man who is believed to have robbed eight banks in the Chicago area and northern Indiana in a four-month period.

According to the complaint, the man had camped out on the roof of the bank the night before he robbed it.

An unspecified reward is being offered for the “helmet bandit” in the Chase Bank robberies.

Anyone with information about the Chase bank robberies, or any bank robbery, should call the Chicago FBI office at 312-421-6700.

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