Police reportedly arrested an 83-year-old man who was wanted in connection to seven bank heists conducted within the past seven months in Illinois.
Donald Bennett, also known as the Leaping Bandit, partnered with an accomplice he met in prison to rob more than half a dozen banks in suburban Chicago, a 24-page criminal complaint by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleged, CBS News reported Monday.
83-year-old man, accomplice arrested in string of bank heists in Chicago suburbs https://t.co/g7aNXcqjfL
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Bennet and his accomplice, Edward Binert, have been charged with robbing a Chase Bank in Hickory Hills on Feb. 14, the outlet reported. The suspects met in a federal prison in Michigan in 2006.
Investigators have accumulated evidence that may connect Bennet to six other bank robberies, though he has yet to be formally charged in those cases, the outlet reported.
In 1987, Bennet was sentences to 31 years in prison for five bank robberies, according to the outlet. He was released in April 2020. (RELATED: 78-Year-Old Missouri Woman Arrested Over Alleged Bank Robbery… For The Third Time)
Arthur Lurgio, a professor of criminology and psychology at Loyola University, said that Bennet was “probably feeling a sense of practice, competency” when he committed his most recent robbery, CBS News reported. The professor noted that Bennett “took a long hiatus, but he’s going back to what he’s familiar doing.”
“He’s developed some sense of bravado and still has it burning inside at the age of 83,” Lurigio said of the suspect.
Bennett and Binert both wore black face coverings, fake wigs and fake beards during the Feb. 14 bank robbery. They successfully threatened a teller into giving them $7,000, but were arrested by the FBI later that day, the complaint said.
The other six bank robberies showed a similar modus operandi, with the suspect threatening each teller with a gun, attempting to obscure his identity with a face covering and a wig and using a rental car as a getaway vehicle, according to the outlet.