April 07--A man suspected of committing a string of bank robberies from Rogers Park to Carol Stream to West Englewood was arrested by an Illinois State trooper Tuesday with the help of two citizens, authorities said.
Colby D. Bell, 40, who records show also is on parole in a 2007 aggravated domestic battery case, was arrested after Chicago and state police tracked his movements on the Stevenson Expressway and nearby as he tried to escape following the robbery of a TCF Bank, 3333 W. 26 th St about 10:47 a.m. Tuesday, according to a federal complaint against Bell. Bell, who made off with more than $4,120, was caught after the car he was driving crashed into a truck, according to an FBI affidavit in the case.
On Tuesday, a man later identified as Bell went into the bank and asked a teller for change for a $20 bill, but ended up going to a second teller because the first was with a customer, according to the affidavit.
The man went up to the second teller and gave her a note a plastic bag, according to the charges. The teller only had time to read the word "dye" on the note when the man said "I will shoot you in the head if you don't give me the cash! No dye pack."
The note, later taken as evidence by Chicaog police, read, "I have a gun. Put 100s 50s 20s 10s in the bag. No dye packs. I will shoot you quickly. Be quiet."
The clerk did what the man said, giving him cash along with a GPS tracking device, and the man told the teller to get other tellers to put their money in the bag. The teller who was being robbed held the bag open for the first teller, who apparently didn't realize what was going on, prompting the robber to say the teller should "put the money in the bag or I will kill you," according to the charges.
The first teller and a third then also put their money in the bag, and the robber left the bank with the cash and the GPS tracker in the bag.
Police and the FBI followed the GPS tracker, and police radio broadcast updates on the location, with officers figuring out the vehicle with the tracker was a blue Dodge Charger with a partial plate of DDH that eventually was driving at high speeds on the Stevenson Expressway, according to the affidavit.
A State trooper who was monitoring the radio traffic saw a Charger driving at high speed getting off the northbound Stevenson at Ashland Avenue, then as the trooper followed, driving south in the northbound lanes of Ashland. The Charger was hit by a semi-tractor trailer truck when the Charger turned in front of it, according to the charges.
After the crash, the robber left the car in a restaurant parking lot at 3256 S. Ashland and started to run away, but the trooper, with the help of two citizens, was able to grab and arrest him as he tried to climb a fence in the parking lot. Police found the bag, with $4,124 cash and the GPS in it, in the Charger.
After he was captured, Bell admitted to robbing the TCF bank and five other banks, admitting he was the person in surveillance photos from Tuesday's robbery, according to the affidavit. He also admitted to writing the robbery note.
According to the BanditTrackerChicago website, the man who robbed the TCF also is suspected in the following robberies:
--TCF Bank, 1250 W. Main St. in West Dundee, at 3:45 p.m. March 29;
--West Suburban Bank, 1380 Army Trail Road, Carol Stream, March 8;
--Guaranty Bank, 4620 S. Damen Ave., March 10;
--CitiBank, 2801 W. Devon Ave., March 12;
--and Guaranty Bank, 7030 S. Ashland Ave., March 21.
State records show that Bell is on parole in a 2007 aggravated domestic battery and unlawful restraint case. He previously served time in prison in connection with convictions in four 1996 robbery cases, according to state records.
Bell appeared for an initial hearing Wednesday morning in federal court, and is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to records.
