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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Serial bank robber from NY now in Philly

Here's an excerpt of a story we have going in Wednesday's paper:

He’s not John Dillinger — not by a long shot — but a lanky stickup man has the FBI on his tail after he pulled off a three-month bank-robbery spree.
The crook, a thin, 6-foot-4 black man in his 30s who covers the lower half of his face with a cloth, has robbed two banks in Philadelphia and 13 in New York City since Jan. 7, said Special Agent J.J. Klaver, an FBI spokesman. The thief struck again yesterday in New York.
“This is a lot for a serial robber in a short amount of time,” Klaver said. “He’s hitting so many banks so quickly, and he’s armed."

The lanky bandit’s busy schedule reflects a larger trend in Philadelphia, where the number of bank robberies is surging ahead of previous years’ totals.
Since Jan. 1, 30 bank robberies have occurred in the city, compared to 27 at this point a year ago, and 19 at this time in 2007, said Special Agent Bastian Freund, a bank-robbery coordinator.

Armed bank robberies have jumped 50 percent, with six so far in the city compared to three at this point last year, the FBI said.
Klaver said that investigators are concerned by the thieves who brandish weapons — especially the lanky crook who’s been having a field day with banks in New York.
Locally, he held up a Citizens Bank at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard on Feb. 26, and another Citizens Bank at 20th and Market on March 14, Klaver said. Citizens Bank has issued a $10,000 reward for tips that lead to the robber’s capture and conviction.
“We want to catch him before something worse than an armed robbery happens,” Klaver said.
The FBI released images of the bandit yesterday and are hoping that tipsters will call in with information. Freund said that tips from Daily News readers helped capture three of four bank robbers featured in a Jan. 30 issue of the People Paper.
 
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 12:18 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
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About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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