Surveillance photos of the suspect who robbed a Loop bank Wednesday morning. | FBI
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A retired Chicago Police detective turned in his nephew to the FBI after he robbed a bank inside the Aon Center Wednesday morning in the Loop, authorities said.
About 8 a.m., a man walked into the Associated Bank branch at 200 E. Randolph and asked for change for a $10 bill, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.
He started to walk away after the teller told him he had to have an account, and then he jumped the teller counter and demanded money, authorities said. He said he had a gun and patted his waistband, but didn’t show a weapon, according to the complaint.
The man then emptied a cash drawer and took off with more than $2,800, according to the FBI. Surveillance images showed the robber in a yellow “IOWA” hooded sweatshirt.
The next day, the retired CPD detective called an FBI employee saying that his nephew Ramses Longstreet had carried out the robbery, authorities said.
Longstreet had come to his uncle hours after the robbery and asked him to hold $2,600 for him, the complaint says. After Longstreet left, his mother called the former detective, saying representatives from the rehabilitation center where Longstreet was living had called her claiming he had robbed a bank, the complaint says.
The former detective called his nephew, created a ruse to pick him up and then drove him to FBI headquarters, authorities said. Tellers at the bank later positively identified him, and some of the cash he gave his uncle included bait bills from the bank, the complaint says.
Longstreet remains held at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.
So far in 2016, 158 banks have been robbed in the Chicago area, according to the FBI. Last year, there were a total of 144 bank robberies.