Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, in the war on identity theft... This is a

legit account, because you know I'm going to check it. There is a new enemy.

The drugs are set there, and I fight the temptation, the temptation... One who

is dedicated, resourceful, and addicted to meth.

I had gotten addicted to going into a bank and using somebody else's name and

walking out with a thousand dollars.

And later...

When he enters a bank, he's very commanding. He immediately takes control

situation. A mysterious bank robber who's not afraid of violence or the

Points a gun at people and tells them he will shoot them. I believe that he will

follow through on those threats if it comes to it. Who is the Wheaton Bandit?

I had a chiropractic appointment that morning, and I was coming into town to

attend that. On a Saturday afternoon, Virginia DeSette is pulled over for

speeding. Her luck turns from bad to worse when the officer tells her there

warrant out for her arrest.

And I said, no, you're joking. And he goes, no.

I said, what are the charges?

He said, felony forgery.

The wife and mother is taken into custody and booked into the county jail

crime she didn't commit.

It was a shocker, and it was scary because I knew that I had done nothing

Two months earlier, DeSette's wallet had been stolen out of her car, and the

thief took more than the woman's money.

There had been somebody arrested who had stolen my identity and had been using

it, and so to find out that there had been a warrant out for my arrest for

felony forgery, I just knew this was definitely not right.

DeSette sits in the lockup while her husband tries to gather $10 ,000 for

I waited, and I waited.

And I watched them haul off one or two people in little orange jumpsuits

they couldn't post bail.

And I was scared.

At the end of the day, her husband makes it back with the money, and Desed is

released. But she is not happy.

I was victimized when my ID was stolen, and I've been victimized again by the

system. What happened?

I called her up, and she was readily talking with me, and I thought, well,

got the wrong person here now.

The warrant for DeSette's arrest originated with Denver detective Jim

has been investigating a case of counterfeit checks with DeSette's name

Her identification is used.

The teller identifies, she just tells me, the person presenting me this check,

identifying herself as Virginia DeSette, appeared to be that person on the ID.

But the real Virginia DeSette is not the one cashing the checks.

They were actually...

dressing women up to look like me, wearing wigs to get my hair colored.

This is the picture. You can see she's got her sunglasses on and her hair.

They felt matched quite a bit.

Detective Rock learned that a woman has already been arrested in another county

for using DeSette's ID, a woman named Roberta Corcoran.

Roberta Corcoran was linked to a whole lot of individuals and a whole lot of

checks. And we're not just talking checks with the name of DeSette on here.

The detective begins to unravel a tangled web of identity thieves and

group whose members are bound by one thing, meth addiction.

I don't know of many people that were doing meth that weren't involved with

identity theft.

In 2002, Tammy Carroll is a meth addict and part of the identity theft ring that

is stolen to Seth's ID, her money, and her freedom.

Somebody would go steal a purse.

and bring it to me, and, you know, I'd give them 50 bucks or a little bit of

drugs or something like that.

Tammy has learned the illegal trade from her meth associates, including how to

steal information as easily as possible from trash bins, or even better, from

the mail.

You would look for, with residential, the red flag is up. Normally if the red

flag is up in a residential neighborhood, the only reason that would

they're mailing out a letter or a bill.

With stolen documents, Tammy creates phony checks using commonly available

software.

You don't necessarily even have to have an actual check in front of you if you

have their banking information, like a statement with the account number.

Members of the group then use other people's IDs, mostly stolen from purses

wallets, to cash the checks.

The scheme is easy and lucrative.

If I did it three, four days a week, then I'd do it at least a couple checks

day, 900 each, so 4 ,000 a week maybe,

at least.

The cash is not the sole motive for Tammy's greed.

Nearly all of her profit is spent on meth, a drug particularly suited to the

crime of identity theft.

It's a drug that allowed them.

not only to function, but function for very long periods of time, making

identities, making checks, spending time to get the drugs so they don't have to

do other things to make money.

Identity theft is the fastest -growing crime in America.

Methamphetamine is the fastest -growing drug habit.

In Colorado and states across the country, these crimes are inextricably

Denver Assistant DA Joe Morales sees the connection every day.

We take out big rings of identity thefts. I would say of those, 80 % of

have some drug connection, and of that drug, the most popular drug is

methamphetamine. They're out there about 3 in the morning, they grab the mail,

they get done about 9 o 'clock in the morning, and they're already printing

checks up in the car, parked in the lots, waiting for the business to open.

Detective Jim Rock brings his case to the DA's office.

And a multi -jurisdictional group of investigators comes together to put a

to the crime ring that victimized Virginia DeSette.

And typically what you will see in these groups, as we see in this case, one of

them gets sloppy, one of them makes a bad decision, or a clerk gets wise to

what's going on, and they're caught.

Four months later, Tammy Carroll is caught when she purchases stolen IDs

police informant.

She led us to an individual, and they led us to another individual. And the

individual that it kind of bottomed lined at was a guy by the name of

Schreckengast. And Schreckengast was a heavy methamphetamine user,

and he was deep into counterfeiting these checks.

Michael Schreckengast is top dog of the loose -knit group of up to 40 ID

thieves, all addicted to meth.

and raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent funds.

He would enlist them. He would print up the check.

If they didn't have an ID, he would make them an ID. He had people all over

going for him, and he would, you know, get half the money, and that's how he

it. He was paying people to commit crimes.

The case becomes known for one of Schreck and Goss' more memorable scams.

We call this the Harley case because the main suspect in this case...

used a counterfeit check to buy a Harley -Davidson motorcycle.

Under an assumed identity, Streckengast had paid more than $17 ,000 for the

Harley. He used what is known as a convenience check sent by credit card

companies to their customers.

This is a convenience check. The check had been stolen from a woman's mailbox

before she even knew it was there.

But they went out and bought a bike with that check because she had a $25 ,000

credit limit.

For victim Virginia DeSette, the damage is much worse.

I'm sitting there waiting for somebody to do something to prove me

innocent. After being wrongfully arrested, DeSette has to work to get

stolen from her checking account.

They bought printers.

and computer stuff, and it was obviously things that they bought in order to

propagate this forgery ring that they were involved in. And not only that, her

credit started going down because they were using her name and her driver's

license, and everything was being reported as a bad credit to her.

So not only did she have to worry about being arrested, but she had to worry

about her credit history being completely ruined.

The set story is more motivation for the team of investigators to put a stop to

the Harley group.

Over the next six months, they've pieced together a complex, organized crime

case. We had 31 named suspects that we were able to identify that had actually

passed checks.

And as the investigators begin closing in on their suspects, Detective Rock

decides to become a regular at Michael Schreckengast's house.

He had cameras in the trees. He had cameras mounted on his roof. He had

covering the backyard.

So he was really paranoid, and I just kind of added to the fire.

I'd drive out there, bang on the door. They wouldn't answer the door, but he

knew I was there. He had the cameras on me.

And I just let him know that we knew who he was, and we were going to be talking

real close one day.

Every time they turned around, there was a police agency there throughout the

whole metro area.

In Denver, Colorado, a team of investigators is zeroing in on a

identity theft ring.

We had 53 different victims whose checks or IDs had been compromised.

For up to a year, the group has been operating in the Denver area, racking up

victims and cash.

A quarter million dollars lost in more than 850 transactions.

The group's ringleader is named Michael Schreckengast. Like everyone involved in

the crime ring, he has turned to identity theft in order to support his

addiction to meth.

On July 31, 2002, Schreckengast makes a fatal mistake.

He got lazy. He went in. He used a very bad ID.

He tried to use the name of Benjamin Bryce Taiwan Kim.

And then he tried to use a check that had been used before, and they were wise

to it.

And the police were called, and he didn't run, and we caught him. And from

on, we were able to link all the other parties together.

Also arrested is Tammy Carroll, who has been stealing identities and forging

checks for almost a year.

I was looking for the next high on a daily basis, trying to figure out where

next check was going to come from.

Michael Schreckengast is sentenced to 10 years in prison under Colorado's

organized crime statute.

For Tammy Carroll, the judge reserves a far worse sentence.

And he said, you're a drug addict, and you're always going to be a drug addict,

and I don't ever want to see your kids in your care again.

Three of Tammy's children are already in foster care, and the judge decides to

place her youngest child up for adoption.

No other sentence in the world could have been worse, you know, prison,

anything, than hearing that.

I decided to change my life that day.

Tammy is eventually allowed to forego her prison sentence and does time in a

drug treatment center instead.

I just want everybody to know that that Friday night group that I do now, it's

called The Road to Sobriety.

Today, Tammy Carroll is clean and sober.

She now works with people dealing with addictions of their own.

I am using my past as a way to help others instead of it just being all

time.

And after three years apart, Tammy's three oldest children have been returned

her. I work now, and I make in a month what I used to make in a day. So it's

different, but I feel so much better about myself. There's nothing, no drug,

check, no fraud, no identity theft in the world can make me feel like I do

today.

While Tammy has been able to reclaim her life, Virginia Deset is still trying to

put hers together.

After being victimized by the identity thieves and wrongfully arrested, the

charges against DeSette have been dropped, but her arrest record remains.

When the charges have been dropped, it's for lack of evidence.

It's not because you were innocent.

It's because we don't have enough evidence to prove that you did it, so

going to have to let it go.

Well, that's not good enough.

And there is no end in sight to the growing problems of identity theft and

addiction.

But Colorado has decided to fight back.

Let's talk about West Metro, North Metro. We don't need names today.

Just give me some general idea where we're at with that.

At the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, there is a new team of agents at work.

They are known as Criminal Fraud Investigators, or CFI.

briefly gone through the report. There's a lot of compromised checking accounts.

We're looking for those templates and those information, photos of the group

that they have used.

And they are tasked with cracking one of Colorado's most prolific crimes.

Identity theft is a problem that affects not just individual victims, but major

financial institutions.

For Colorado banks, the losses to identity theft fraud have been growing

nearly a decade.

It's enormous, and that has meant it's been our number one priority for about a

half a dozen years.

Bankers started complaining about it around 2000. We then put together an

estimate that fraud costs Colorado banks $150 million a year.

Last year, the Colorado Bankers Association decided to take action.

They created legislation that provides dedicated funding for the CBI fraud

Agent Kirsten Gregg and Donya Davis are part of the team.

Well, today we're going to go look for a woman whose name is Kimberly, and she's

an identity thief, and she's also a meth addict.

The suspect is Kimberly Merritt. She has already confessed to stealing the

identities of at least four women.

Between October of last year to March of this year, she was able to scam $140

,000 or thereabouts.

Merritt and her associates allegedly gain access to their victims' personal

information with a file -sharing application called LimeWire.

They search for unsecured computers and secretly download banking information

and social security numbers.

She would memorize their information, go out and purchase vehicles, get lines of

credit, open up credit card accounts, buy cell phones.

She stole quite a bit of money.

For these agents, it's a typical identity theft case.

with close ties to the meth trade.

So if you come across an identity theft case, a lot of times you'll come across

the methamphetamine as well. Almost like 9 out of 10 cases, they're linked.

The suspect is currently out on bond, and the agents believe she could be

targeting even more victims, committing new identity thefts in order to fund her

meth habit.

We suspect that she could be continuing her criminal activities, so we want to

go out and see what she's up to. If she's there, we want to talk to her, do

little bit of follow -up in our investigation, maybe follow around, see

doing anything she shouldn't be doing.

We're looking for Kim. Do you have any idea where she's at?

Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents Donya Davis and Kirsten Gregg are hot on

the trail of an identity thief, and they have invited American Greed to ride

along. The suspect's name is Kim Merritt. She has confessed to stealing

identities of four innocent women, and she is out on bond.

She stole quite a bit of money, and assuming these women's identity, you are

probably going to have to take years to rehab their credit.

Merritt, like most of Denver's identity thieves, is also a meth addict.

It's always good also to keep an eye on your suspects that you're investigating.

They don't stop their criminal activities, so it's good to keep an eye

25 miles outside Denver in the desolate plains, Greg and Davis arrive at Tim's

last known address, an RV that belongs to the suspect's boyfriend.

Where's Tim at?

I don't know.

She's not living with you?

You don't mind if we step in there?

She is in there. She is in there? Yeah. Okay, well, we need to speak to her,

okay?

Inside the RV, agents find Kim Merritt. She is surrounded by credit documents,

the first clue to possible financial fraud.

How are you doing?

We need to speak to you.

I need to see how you're holding up and what you're doing here, and I can see

you're doing the same identity theft.

After reading the woman her Miranda rights, Agent Davis questions Merritt

the papers in her possession.

And this account, did you use anybody else's social security number when you

opened this account?

No, ma 'am. This is a legit account? Because you know I'm going to check it.

Yeah. Merritt denies any other identity theft or fraud, but the agents aren't

too quick to believe her.

Okay, last name is Merritt.

M -E -R -R -I -T -T.

While Agent Gregg calls in to check on possible warrants, Agent Davis spots

paraphernalia near the suspect.

I do see that there is a crack pipe right here. So you've been using drugs

When was the last time you used? Not today.

Not today.

Okay. When I then prompted her on if there were any drugs still there, she

initially denied it and then said that she did have just a little bit left. She

then showed me the small, clear plastic baggie that had the suspected

methamphetamine.

It sits there, and I fight the temptation, the temptation, the

Remember what I said to you. It makes it even harder if you have it sit right

there. So classic case of an identity thief who's sitting there looking at her

documents and finding out what she has and then her addiction right next to

In addition to the meth, agents find several credit cards in Merritt's purse,

more possible evidence of identity theft.

Those are legit me and my name in copy. What's on the prepaid? Anything on it? A

dollar. Okay.

And that's my Sam's Club card.

Okay. It's free.

I'm always afraid to sometimes open the fridge.

There was some documentation in there. It looks like envelopes from the loan

that we had previously known about, the credit cards, even though she says

it's... A prepaid credit card, still very concerning.

You know, how did she get that?

There was a credit card statement in there.

Obviously, we're going to have to look at that.

So it's very concerning. And obviously, she admitted she's still using drugs,

which she claims is why she does all of this.

A warrant comes back on Merrick for violating probation on a previous

theft conviction.

And she will have to go to jail.

Just go ahead and put your hands down below your lower back.

Just relax. Just relax.

She said it was the drugs. It's the drugs that make her do all this. And

just an all -consuming lifestyle that all they care about is their next fix

how to stay high and how to get there.

And if you're not working, how do you pay for that drug habit? And it's very

easy for them to go into the identity theft.

What happened? I heard bits and pieces, but I didn't hear the story.

Well, we did go out there, and she was there, and she was...

In the trailer, surrounded by documents with her meth pipe right next to her and

her little bindle of meth with her.

Okay, good, good.

Well, that case is having a good result.

And it's continuing.

There is really no final stage to it until she is convicted, because she

very well be out today and back at it again.

The agents are left to build a case against Kim Merritt before she targets

more victims, like Anita Janz.

I was on the phone talking to a mortgage broker.

I was shopping for a better rate on my mortgage of my current home.

And he goes, oh, I see you have more than one mortgage. And I go, uh, no, I

don't think so. What?

In September of 2005, Janz learns that someone has stolen her identity and

bought nearly $1 million in properties in her name.

You're just like in panic and scared and what am I responsible for?

And so in trying to figure out what to do and then you're

trying to find, call and contact the mortgage companies, the title companies.

The average victim of identity theft spends 600 hours cleaning up their

After eight months of trying to do it on her own, Jans decides to call in

professional help.

I .D.

Watchdog is a young company getting in on the ground floor of the identity

protection and rehab industry.

Number one, they come to us to make sure that it's done completely, and they

come to us to make sure that they don't have to spend their own time doing it.

So you want to hear about the latest?

I do.

Okay, well, good.

Now, the end of Janz's credit nightmare is finally in sight.

In about a week, they should have a clearance letter and everything taken

of from your credit report standpoint.

Wow. I can't tell you what good news this is.

And individuals are not the only ones seeking professional help.

Businesses are suffering losses upwards of $48 billion a year to identity theft

fraud.

Now companies are starting to take matters into their own hands.

They are attempting to outsmart the thieves by hiring one of their own.

And that's where companies hire us to physically go in, or sometimes remote,

break into their facility and see if we can get a hold of their data by just

walking in the front door and taking something.

Jim Stickley owns a company called Trace Security, and it's his job to make sure

employers are protected from identity theft.

He does that by stealing from them.

We have a huge success rate.

When a new organization hires us, we go in. If we get caught, it's almost a

surprise to us at this point.

It's just, it's really easy.

In one of Stickney's most common schemes, he dresses as a fire inspector,

a business, such as a bank, and tells employees he needs to do an inspection.

You know, we don't say we're with the fire department. Our shirt is a very

generic shirt. We do have a fake badge, but the badge just says that we're there

to do a fire inspection. It doesn't have anything official at all.

But we look good. You know, we're in this little uniform.

And they go, oh, okay, and they just give you the keys to the kingdom. We

okay, we're going to walk your whole facility. We always have our black bags

that are empty.

And we just go, and the main thing we go after is their data center, and we

steal all their backup tapes.

Close to 90 % of the time, Stickley and his crew gain access to the business's

customer files.

And if you're at a bank and you have their backup tapes, that's every

security number, mother's maiden name, everything you ever had, and we've

out the front door with it.

Luckily, Stickley is one of the good guys.

Instead of turning stolen identities into cash, he returns his loot to the

business and tells them what went wrong.

We go back a couple days later, and we meet with our staff, and they see all

stuff that we got, and they're just...

You know, first of all, we were there in a uniform just a couple days earlier,

and now we're there in street clothes, and they realize they're putting it

together in the room and going, this guy wasn't who he was supposed to be. And,

you know, I'm not silver -tongued, but I'm just a nice, average guy, and that's

all it takes.

For Stickley, committing identity theft would be easy, and the real criminals

know this all too well.

Anita Janz believes the best way to stop identity theft is to avoid becoming a

victim in the first place.

These people who are dishonest, they don't want your property or your car or

your stereo. They want your identity because they can do a lot more with

That's your most precious commodity is what I want people to know.

So you have to live differently, be more aware.

Coming up on American Greed, a robber who steals from more than just money.

Maybe it's more for thrill -seeking, maybe just for the adrenaline rush.

and grows more commanding with each hit.

I just prayed that he wouldn't get so nervous that he would shoot us.

The hunt is on for the Wheaton Bandit.

Wheaton, Illinois, an affluent western suburb of Chicago.

But to the outside world appears to be as safe an apple pie as any suburb can

be. It's considered a nice place to raise a family.

But since 2002, one shadow hangs ominously over this city, a serial bank

armed and ready for a fight, who has hit 16 times and is still walking the

streets.

In the early morning hours, the bandit hides in these bushes, waiting for

tellers to open the bank.

As the employees stand at the door, the bandit strikes, gun in hand.

Once inside, he orders the tellers to unlock the vault and hand over their

drawers. He grabs the cash himself, then forces the tellers to the floor,

warning them not to do anything for five minutes or else he'll come back.

He disappears into the early morning with nearly $14 ,000.

Police and the FBI call him the Wheaton Bandit.

This was the first robbery.

Tina Forkus and Eric Cayley are the FBI agents in charge of the Wheaton Bandit

investigation. We believe he probably hid here, and then this way you could

a clear line of sight.

and watch the employees as they arrived at work that morning, and then just

discreetly go down the hill here and be able to catch them as they were entering

the banks of the morning.

From this vantage point, the bandit can plan his attack and his escape.

And directly on the other side of this wood line is a small subdivision that

a cul -de -sac located directly behind the wood line, which could provide a

perfect escape route for him if he was to park a car.

Tellers described the Wheaton Bandit as a white male in his 20s or 30s, tall

with a medium build.

He's dressed in a coat, jeans, gym shoes, gloves, and a mask.

The Wheaton Bandit robber, the tactical hood that he wears, is not a typical ski

mask that we see a lot in bank robberies. It's considered a balc lava,

a tactical hood.

You often see it used by undercover drug agents, SWAT operators, and military

personnel.

One of the things that does stand out in most of these robberies is that most of

the tellers have said he does have very striking blue eyes.

The eyes behind the mask are one of the few clues police have.

One of the things that he's done early on was try to rob banks in inclement

weather. I mean, it gives him a good excuse to cover up his face and cover up

his head.

Police say the serial bank robber is becoming more bold and more aggressive,

they're sure he will strike again.

The Wheaton Bandit returns to this small branch and robs it for a third time.

I looked towards the door, and there's a man standing there with a gun pointing

at me.

Janet England has been a teller for 17 years.

Today is the first time she's come face to face with a robber or a gun.

I could not look at this man. I was too scared to look up at him.

And he said, I know you have more money. And I said, I have no more money. And I

put my hands like this. I would not look at him.

I just prayed that he wouldn't get so nervous that he would shoot us.

What the bandit says next gives police a possible clue.

He got really nervous and very mad at me when he saw that I had a dye pack in

the drawer.

A dye pack is a small explosive charge that, when detonated, stains the money

and sometimes the robber. He said to me, he says, what do you think I am,

stupid? He said, I used to work in a bank, and I know what that is.

The Wintry robberies may help shield the bandit's identity.

But they also give police more clues, his shoe prints and escape routes.

The Wheaton bandit ran out of the bank, came across this grassy area, which

happened to have snow at the time.

Wheaton detective Steve Hamill retraces one escape.

He ran down the sidewalk here.

As he gets up to the next block, you can see in the snow where he turns to the

left. It was about halfway down the block where you can see he's got a car

parked. It's a one -way street, and you can see footprints leading up to the

driver's side of the door, which indicate to us that he is working alone.

As lead investigator, Hamill searches for why the bandit strikes.

Investigations, Hamill. We don't believe he has a drug habit. We don't believe

that this is driven by a gambling problem.

The dollar amounts that he's been getting wouldn't indicate that.

He may not necessarily be doing these robberies just for money alone, that

it's more for thrill -seeking, maybe just for the attention, for the

rush that he gets when he does the robberies. On May 10, 2003, the bandit

strikes for the seventh time.

His take is nearly $17 ,000.

The FBI studies the Wheaton bandit, taking note of his unique habits or

signatures.

The Wheaton bandit.

does what is considered indexing the weapon.

That is, as he's holding the weapon, he actually keeps his finger along the

slide of the gun and not in the trigger. It's a safety precaution that is used

by many people who are trained in firearms, including military and law

enforcement. We do believe that the Wheaton Bandit uses a police scanner.

The witnesses said that he would say, I have a police scanner. I know if you'll

call the police.

In reviewing the video surveillance footage from Wheaton Bandit robberies,

are several images that lead us to believe that the Wheaton bandit is

wearing body armor under his clothing.

A soft body armor, similar to the one I'm holding here, oftentimes causes

outlines on a layer of clothing if worn underneath.

These signatures suggest that the bandit may have police or military training.

What's very alarming to us is the fact that he does have the body armor on. I

mean, you wear body armor because you don't want to get shot, and that tells

that he's prepared to exchange gunfire with responding police officers or FBI

agents.

Eight hits through 2003 net the bandit almost $84 ,000.

What law enforcement has learned up to this point leads to a disturbing

hypothesis. When we return, could the Wheaton bandit be a police officer?

If he is law enforcement, is he current law enforcement? And if he is current

law enforcement, how much of what we know and what we're doing does he know?

That's the bad part.

For more information and special web exclusives, log on to AmericanGreed

.com.

What you are watching is the Wheaton Bandit in action.

The date is August 28, 2003.

He's fully disguised, gun drawn, threatening teller.

When he enters, then he would actually order all the employees to the floor.

Since his spree began in 2002, the Wheaton Bandit has eluded authorities.

Special Agent Tina Forkus and Eric Cayley are tasked with chasing him down.

If there are tellers that are down on the floor, he makes them get back up. He

will give them orders directly.

to remove their cash drawers by placing the trays up on this counter.

The Department of Justice classifies a criminal like the Wheaton Bandit as a

professional bank robber.

He hits at different times of day when few customers are present.

He gives himself clear exit paths.

He uses a disguise to defeat bank identification systems.

And in more than five years, he has hit 16 times.

failing only once.

It's 6 .37 a .m., and the Wheaton Bandit returns to the scene of his first

robbery. He's once again hiding in the bushes, waiting to attack.

I was already in the bank. I had come in to check everything out, make sure

everything in the bank was secure.

I went back to this front door to let the teller in.

Jennifer is a teller supervisor for West Suburban Bank.

I heard sticks breaking in the back corner by the drive -up ATM sign.

I told her to hurry up, and I said, somebody's coming.

And that's when she turned and ran into the bank, and I locked the doors that

she grabbed for the handle to open the door.

Finding himself locked out, The would -be robber turns and pleads.

Both women are terribly shaken, but Jennifer's will isn't broken.

It was a bad thing to happen, but it doesn't mean I'm going to leave my

and change my career. He's not going to force me out of it.

Suburban police are on the lookout for a serial bank robber tonight, a gunman

who has held up seven banks and a credit union over the past two years.

The new year starts off with a bang.

The Wheaton Bandit hits this credit union in Winfield, a suburb bordering

Wheaton. His take, nearly $17 ,000.

This is the credit union that was hit on January 22, 2004.

The Wheaton Bandit.

Walked in, took over the bank, pointed a handgun at the tellers, ordered

everyone to the ground, had them put their drawers up on top, removed all the

money himself.

He was in and out in 60 seconds.

Surveillance tape shows him running this way where he believed he had a car

waiting for him, and then he left from there.

To improve their chances of identifying the Wheaton Bandit, banks and law

enforcement turned to a reliable weapon, a cash reward of $5 ,000.

Historically, rewards work.

Ask FBI or law enforcement.

When a reward is put out, it gets people's attention.

The reward soon grows to $25 ,000.

We're hoping that someone in the public will try to help out law enforcement,

help out their community, and also collect that reward money.

While rewards are great for capturing robbers, banks are focusing more of

efforts on preventing robberies.

An effective deterrent is a greeter in the bank's lobby.

A greeter is simply an employee that seeks to engage a customer as they're

walking into the bank, make eye contact with that person to let that person know

they're being watched and they're welcomed into the institution, but also

watched by the institution.

So why not station an armed guard at the door, a greeter with a gun?

There is no guarantee that a bank will not get robbed if there is an armed

at the front door.

If a bank was to get robbed with an armed guard, historically and

the chances of something bad happening drastically increase.

Banks are also creating policies to deter potential bank robbers. One policy

called No Hats, No Hoods, No Sunglasses.

The No Hats, No Hoods, No Sunglasses program is really intended to discourage

prospective bank robbers from even attempting to rob a bank.

West Suburban Bank is one of the first banks in Illinois to implement the

program. The program is pretty simple. We post a sign at the front doors of

every one of our branches, and we ask our customers to remove any half -hood

sunglasses upon entering our banks.

By the end of 2004, the Wheaton Bandit has pulled off nine successful bank

robberies. Despite deterrence and their best efforts, police believe he will

strike again.

When American Greed returns, the investigation heats up.

as the Wheaton Bandit makes a critical mistake.

In 2005, the Wheaton Bandit is again making news.

Tonight, a serial bank robber is still on the move, and the FBI wants your help

to try to track him down.

On January 14th, he strikes for the 11th time at a Mid -America bank in Glen

Ellyn, Illinois.

Within the next 12 months, the Wheaton Bandit hits two more banks in Chicago's

western suburbs, bringing his total to 13.

Law enforcement needs to catch a break.

On November 29th, 2006, they get one.

A possible eyewitness.

We're at the Fifth Third Bank. That was the 14th robbery. It was hit on November

29th of 2006.

He did approximately about 4 .50, just 10 minutes before they closed.

Approximately one hour before that, we had a witness in a car stating that he

ran into the possible suspect that he encountered right over by that stop sign

there. He went to talk to him. He thought it was his brother. When he

it was, then he kind of stopped and feel that he startled him. Gave him an old

sorry wave.

As he left, he looked back in his mirror and noticed that the guy was still

standing there.

That eyewitness helps police artists develop this sketch of a potential

But before the sketch can go public, the bandit strikes again.

On December 1st, the Wheaton bandit robs this bank in Geneva, Illinois.

Six days later, he robs another in Glen Ellyn.

Then, on December 11th, 2006, the sketch is released.

The Wheaton bandit vanishes, and the robberies stop.

There's some talk, is this a swan song for him? You know, the grand finale,

three bank robberies in eight days. I do not think this is a grand finale.

It's almost as if he's taunting police and FBI agents to a certain degree.

We may find that if he does rob another bank, that he may go outside of his

comfort zone a little bit, thinking that, you know, that was a close one and

almost got caught, so he better be a little bit more cautious on the next

Historically bank robbers have counted on disguises to help hide their

identities. But what about the quality of bank surveillance?

In years past, recorders usually tape over the tape over and over again, and

images begin to be faded when they're transmitted to law enforcement.

You might have a videotape that was used and replayed and recorded over many

hundreds of times, and so when that robbery actually occurred, you have a

grainy picture.

Today, the digital revolution is changing bank security options.

One company named 3VR Security has introduced intelligent video management

systems, which uses facial recognition technology to alert bank personnel when

known fraud artist or robber enters a bank.

Why don't we first of all go through our suspect list, quickly go through the

ones that we have not ruled out yet. With the Wheaton Bandit investigation

to enter its fifth year, police and the FBI join forces to create a task force.

They process more than 100 tips and investigate dozens of suspects.

46 and 47.

46 ruled out physical description.

47, he was in prison during two of the robberies.

In April of 2007, the reward also increases to $50 ,000.

What investigators need now is for one person to step forward and identify the

Wheaton bandit.

Hopefully it will be a tip that comes in, just having the awareness that this

individual is out there and being able to notice something about him, either

that he's spending too much money or that he wears the type of clothing that

in these photographs.

The police and FBI are ready and waiting for that call and their next shot at

closing the Wheaton Bandit case.

You do take pride in what you do in this profession, and that does become a

little insulting.

You know, rightfully so.

He's done his part of the job very well. Now we have to do ours.

If you have information about the Wheaton Bandit robberies, please call

Chicago FBI at 312 -421 -6700.

In an upcoming episode.

A Chicago doctor panics when the feds catch on to his million -dollar

key. He kept on billing for surgeries when they weren't rendered.

Will he go as far as murder to protect his lifestyle? Nobody in the world had

any motive to kill Joyce Brandon except for Ron Michaels.

Find out next time on American Green.