Suspected Serial Bank Robber Arrested

Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was joined today by Gerald Mourning, Chief of the Arlington Heights, Illinois Police Department (AHPD) and Steven Williams, Chief of the Rolling Meadows, Illinois Police Department (RMPD) in announcing the arrest of WILLIAM F. WOHLERS, age 30, whose last known address was in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. WOHLERS was arrested yesterday, without incident, by law enforcement officers.

WOHLERS was charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of Armed Bank Robbery, which is a felony offense. According to the complaint, WOHLERS is believed to have committed an armed “take-over” robbery of the MB Financial bank branch, located at 2251 Plum Grove Road in Rolling Meadows yesterday morning.

The complaint alleges that WOHLERS entered the bank, armed with a handgun, which he freely displayed. He demanded money from bank employees and received an undisclosed amount of cash. Before the suspect left the bank, he demanded more money from the bank safe. He entered the vault area of the bank along with two bank employees. The employees were ordered to open the vault, then retrieved money and placed it into a bag the robber brought with him.

Witnesses at the scene told investigators that the robber fled the bank on a black mountain bicycle. No injuries were reported.

Bank employees notified the RMPD of the robbery, providing a description of both the robber and the bicycle. A radio dispatch was then sent out to area police departments. An alert AHPD Officer, on routine patrol, spotted a vehicle at a gas station at the intersection of Arlington Heights and Palatine Roads. Officers noticed a black bicycle in the back of the vehicle, a red Ford F-250 pickup truck. Officers also noticed a bag and a large amount of loose cash in the front passenger side of the cab. When officers entered the gas station, WOHLERS attempted to run out of the back of the gas station. He was apprehended and taken into custody at the scene.

Although he is only charged with yesterday’s robbery in Rolling Meadows, WOHLERS is also a suspect in as many as eight (8) other armed bank robberies in the Chicago area, dating back to March of this year. The suspected robberies were investigated by the FBI as the “Beach Bum Bandit” and “Bullet Proof Bandit.”

WOHLERS appeared before Magistrate Judge Michael Mason in Chicago, earlier today, at which time he was formally charged. WOHLERS was ordered held without bond, pending his next scheduled court appearance, which has been scheduled for Friday, August 14, 2009 at 1pm before Judge Mason. Until then, WOHLERS will be housed at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago. If convicted of the charge filed against him, WOHLERS faces a possible sentence of up to twenty (20) years incarceration.

Additional information about this and other unsolved Chicago area bank robbery cases, including downloadable photos, are available at the Bandit Tracker Chicago web site, at www.bandittrackerchicago.com.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.