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A man charged with robbing a Loop bank Tuesday morning after being arrested less than an hour after the robbery also is suspected in robberies on the Southwest Side and in a west suburb, according to authorities.
Demetrius Witt, 42, of Dolton, is charged with robbing a Fifth Third Bank branch, 57 E. Randolph St., of $610 about 9:10 a.m. Tuesday, according to the FBI and court documents. He appeared in federal court Tuesday evening and was ordered held in custody until his next hearing, according to FBI spokesman Special Agent Garrett Croon.
Witt also is suspected of robbing a US Bank branch, 11159 S. Kedzie Ave., Saturday, and another US Bank branch, 736 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn, on Sept. 23, according to BanditTrackerChicago.com website. The same man also is believed to have tried to rob a US Bank at 3515 W. Irving Park Road on Sept. 24, according to the website.
On Tuesday, a man entered the Fifth Third Bank a few minutes before 9:10 a.m., went up to a teller and said something like "I want to open an account," according to an FBI affidavit in the case.
The man was holding a folder for a Fifth Third Bank promotion and pulled out a note from the folder, handing it to the teller. The note said something like "I have a gun," according to the affidavit.
The teller realized the man was robbing the bank and took four $100 bills, some $50 bills and "a couple of $5 bills" from a drawer, putting a GPS tracking device in the money before handing it to the robber, according to the affidavit.
The robber asked for "large bills," and while the teller was trying to get more money, the man took the note and left, according to the affidavit. The teller then activated a holdup alarm and called 911.
The teller and another bank employee who saw the robbery but couldn't hear what the robber and teller were saying both described the robber to authorities. Investigators were told a GPS device was in with the money, and a description of the robber went out over Chicago police radio.
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Chicago police began monitoring the location of the GPS device, and "Less than an hour after the robbery," police saw a black Cadillac CTS heading south in an alley west of Michigan Avenue south of 16 th Street, according to the affidavit. Officers stopped the Cadillac in the 1700 block of South Michigan because its location and direction matched that of the GPS device.
The driver, who turned out to be Witt, matched the description of the robber, and was arrested. Tracking software showed the GPS device to be in the Cadillac's trunk, according to the affidavit.
When investigators brought Witt to the bank, the teller who was robbed identified him as the robber. Later, FBI agents identified Witt in surveillance photos of the robbery.