Police have reportedly arrested an 83-year-old man wanted in connection with seven bank robberies in the past seven months in Illinois.
Donald Bennett, also known as the Leaping Bandit, worked with an accomplice he met in prison to rob more than half a dozen banks in suburban Chicago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says in a 24-page criminal complaint. claims. CBS News It was reported on Monday.
83-year-old accomplice arrested in serial bank robberies in Chicago suburbs https://t.co/g7aNXcqjfL
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Bennett and co-defendant Edward Binnert were charged with robbing a Chase Bank in Hickory Hills on Feb. 14, the newspaper reported. The suspects met in 2006 at a federal prison in Michigan.
Investigators have amassed evidence that could link Bennett to six other bank robberies, but he has not yet been formally charged in those cases, the newspaper reported.
In 1987, Bennett was sentenced to 31 years in prison for five bank robberies, according to the newspaper. He was released in April 2020. (Related: 78-year-old Missouri woman arrested on suspicion of bank robbery…third time)
According to a CBS News report, Arthur Lurzio, a professor of criminology and psychology at Loyola University, said Bennett was “probably feeling practiced and feeling competent” when he committed his latest robbery. The professor said Bennett was “returning to what is familiar after a long hiatus.”
“He developed a certain sense of bravado, and even at 83 years old, he still keeps it burning in his mind,” Lurigio said of the suspect.
During the Feb. 14 bank robbery, both Bennett and Vinato wore black face coverings, fake wigs and fake beards. They were able to successfully intimidate the teller into handing over $7,000, but were arrested by the FBI later that day, according to the complaint.
The paper said similar tactics were used in six other bank robberies, in which the suspects threatened each teller with a gun, covered their faces or tried to hide their identities with wigs, and used rental cars as getaway vehicles. It is said that he did something like that.
