Harwood Heights police charged a Chicago man with one count of armed robbery today for allegedly robbing a Harwood Heights bank on Jan. 6. Police said he was caught while allegedly trying to rob the same bank on Friday.
With a home monitoring device still strapped to his ankle, Kenny Wilson, 24, of the 5100 block of Huron Street, Chicago, was on parole when he allegedly robbed the Plaza Bank on the 4600 block of North Harlem Avenue on the morning of Jan. 6.
The conditions of his parole allowed Wilson to leave his home for several hours a day to search for a job, police said, but Wilson decided to allegedly rob the bank instead.
During the Tuesday robbery, police said Wilson and an unknown accomplice allegedly pointed their guns at two employees standing behind the teller window and then fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Wilson returned to Plaza Bank again three days later on Jan. 9 with a new accomplice who police believe is his cousin.
Harwood Heights Police Chief Jim O’Grady said Wilson’s accomplice, who has not been charged, walked into the bank Friday afternoon to survey whether the newly-appointed security guard was armed while Wilson waited outside.
Employees immediately called police when they saw Wilson outside and recognized him as the same robber from Tuesday, according to police.
“One of them entered the bank and pretended to be interested in opening an account,” O’Grady said. “The (cousin) went back to the car and (Wilson) walked around the back of the bank but didn’t go in.”
Police responded to the 9-1-1 call within few minutes, and the two men were apprehended at the scene. A Chicago police officer assisting with the investigation found a bb gun nearby sticking out of the snow, police said.
Wilson allegedly told police he had brought a different gun into the bank on Tuesday—a .380 automatic pistol—but that he was unsure whether it was loaded because someone gave it to him and he never checked, according to police.
Wilson was paroled in November after serving 18 months in prison for a narcotics possession charge.
He also served time for selling marijuana and getting caught with a controlled substance, according to information from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Police said authorities are investigating whether Wilson has been involved in other robberies in the Chicago area.
Similar robberies were reported at the Plaza Bank branch at 3555 Harlem Ave. in Chicago on Nov. 13 and Dec. 13, but police would not say whether there was a connection with the Harwood Heights robberies.
It’s not uncommon, however, for robbers to hit the same bank twice, O’Grady said, adding that the Plaza Bank location could likely be targeted again.
“They realized it was an easy one to hit,” O’Grady said. “Their mentality is, why go to another bank if that one was easy?”
The Norridge and Chicago police departments assisted Harwood Heights police in the arrests.