Man arrested minutes after bank robbery across street from Riverside police station

RIVERSIDE – Riverside police on March 18 arrested a 57-year-old man in connection with a bank robbery across the street from the police station.

At about 4 p.m., police received several 911 calls reporting a bank robbery at First American Bank, 15 Riverside Road, according to a police department news release.

The offender was described as a white man wearing a surgical mask who was last seen running out the side door on East Quincy Street toward the Riverside business district. A bank employee said the offender was wearing orange gym shoes when the robbery took place, according to the release.

Police set up a perimeter and requested the assistance of multiple police jurisdictions for a foot search that included canines.

As police searched the area along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks, they began to recover various pieces of clothing that apparently were shed by the offender as he fled on foot, the report stated.

Police eventually spotted someone who was hiding in a rear yard in the zero to 100 block of East Quincy Street, which is adjacent to the Burlington Northern railroad tracks. The person was wearing orange gym shoes and was taken into custody at gunpoint without incident, the release stated.

Police recovered a large sum of cash hidden in the offender’s sock. They also recovered cash that had been dropped during the pursuit.

The man taken into custody listed three addresses, one out of Brookfield, one out of Chicago and an Elmhurst location. Police believe he had been living in Brookfield as of late last week.

The FBI was notified and the agency will handle the follow-up investigation.

“This arrest was the direct result of an immediate response by Riverside Police officers and mutual aid from our neighboring jurisdictions,” Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said in the release. “We received full cooperation from our neighboring police agencies, including departments that sent their canines to do the ground search. The offender was apprehended within six minutes of the initial call and no officers were injured and the offender was also unharmed. The fact that the offender robbed a bank directly across from the police facility also assisted in making this apprehension happen swiftly.”