Suspect charged in latest ‘Mummy Bandit’ bank heist
STNG WIRE April 9, 2013 4:20PM
Suspect in the robbery of a TCF Bank branch in Lincoln Park on April 7. / photo from FBI
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Updated: April 10, 2013 1:05AM
The “mummy” may be unwrapped, according to the FBI, which filed charges Monday against a North Side man believed to have robbed a bank Sunday with his face wrapped in tape.
Erwin Acox, of the 5100 block of North Kimball, was charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of bank robbery after Chicago Police arrested him and found nearly $3,000 cash in his pocket, money which had been stolen from a TCF Bank at 4250 N. Lincoln, according to a criminal complaint.
FBI Special Agent Joan Hyde said Acox was charged only with that robbery, and so far has not been linked to the four other bank robberies committed by the “Mummy Bandit.”
According to the complaint, Acox entered the TCF Bank inside the Jewel grocery just after 10 a.m. Sunday with his face covered in white tape and grabbed $2,000 from a teller’s hand. He then demanded more money from the drawer, and was given about $700 more. He put the money in his pocket and walked away.
Police later interviewed two witnesses who had just deposited that money and they recalled seeing a man with his face wrapped in tape in the parking lot as they left the store, according to court records.
Chicago police had recently conducted surveillance on Acox, and when they showed a surveillance photo of the robber to an acquaintance of Acox, they reognized the jacket, the complaint states.
Officers then saw Acox riding a bicycle near his home and questioned him. He had a knife in his pocket when he was arrested, and was later found to have $2,886 in his pockets, including the consecutively numbered bills believed to have been taken in the bank heist.
They also found a CTA card which showed that Acox had taken a Brown Line train near the robbery site shortly after the incident, and CTA surveillance showed a man with a taped or masked face getting on at that time.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert ordered Acox held without bond until a hearing on Thursday.
The so-called “Mummy Bandit” is also believed responsible for robbing North Community Bank branches at 2000 W. Division St. on March 5; 4701 N. Clark St. on Dec. 20 and Feb. 1, and 1555 N. Damen on Feb. 22.
