Officials launch manhunt for elusive bank robber
FBI agent calls him disciplined
The masked man sprints into the bank and heads straight for the teller’s window. He brandishes a pistol and leans over the counter to point it inches from the teller’s face. In three robberies, he carries what appears to be a bomb. He completes each holdup faster than a typical transaction at an ATM.
Authorities have launched a manhunt for a robber they have dubbed the U30 Bandit because he is in and out of the banks in under 30 seconds.
“From the time he enters that door, he’s all business,’’ said FBI agent Randy Jarvis, who supervises a violent crimes task force in the Boston area that investigates bank robberies. “This guy’s shown a level of discipline that we rarely see.’’
The robber has held up seven banks in suburbs west and south of Boston between March 26 and June 16, authorities said. Three times he placed what appeared to be an explosive device on the counter, including what looked like three sticks of dynamite taped together in a Needham holdup.
Twice, he left the device after fleeing, prompting evacuations and frantic police responses that diverted authorities from immediately pursuing the robber, according to the FBI. The devices turned out to be fake.
The bureau, which is working with State Police and local police departments on the case, has issued a wanted poster of the robber featuring seven photographs taken by bank surveillance cameras. The FBI has also offered a $37,500 reward.
Deputy Wellesley Police Chief Bill Brooks, whose town was the scene of two of the robberies, said authorities are worried because in recent holdups, the culprit has hoisted himself up at the counter, leaned over, and pointed a gun in the face of tellers with his finger on the trigger.
“That’s a bad combination, because it’s only a matter of time before the weapon discharges,’’ said Brooks, a member of a bank robbery task force that reports to Jarvis.
Bank robberies in the region have fallen this year despite the bad economy.
In the first five months of 2008, there were 203 bank robberies in the FBI division that covers Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, of which 126 took place in the Boston metropolitan area, Jarvis said. For that same period this year, there were 121 in that division, including 74 in the Boston metropolitan area.
Brooks said bank robberies tend to fall into one of two categories: “note jobs,’’ in which the robber quietly passes a note to the teller without drawing attention to the robbery, and “takeovers,’’ in which multiple armed robbers take over the bank while stealing cash.
“This is a lone takeover guy,’’ Brooks said.
Mike McNamara, a spokesman for the FBI’s Boston office, said, “He’s obviously becoming more aggressive, and that concerns us.’’ McNamara declined to disclose how much cash has been stolen, citing FBI policy.
The gunman has covered his face each time with a hood, baseball cap, or ski mask and sometimes a combination of those articles. In a couple of instances, Brooks said, he wore a Halloween skull mask or a wig with dreadlocks whose strands hung in front of his face. He wears gloves.
The robber has bolted from the banks as fast as he has run in. “He’s really very, very quick,’’ Brooks said.
In one of the Wellesley robberies, the culprit is believed to have left what appeared to be another explosive device in a phone booth at a nearby Star Market supermarket shortly before the holdup at a
The robber apparently flees in a car driven by an accomplice. Authorities had no description of the car or getaway driver. Brooks said the robber appears to be white and about 5 feet 10 inches tall, but he had no other details because the gunman’s face is covered.
In addition to Wellesley and Needham, the robberies have occurred in Newton, Dedham (twice), and Walpole.
Anyone with information about the robbery is encouraged to call the FBI at 617-742-5533.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com. 
