A Yorkville, Illinois man suspected of being the “Skinny Jeans Bandit” was arrested earlier today and charged in connection with a November 2014 bank robbery, announced Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Eric Shepherd, 30, of the 1500 block of Orchid Street in Yorkville, was taken into custody this morning without incident. He was charged in a criminal complaint filed this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of bank robbery, a felony offense, in connection with the November 21 robbery of the BMO Harris bank branch located at 850 Army Trail Road in Carol Stream, Illinois. Shepherd appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim, who ordered him held pending his next court appearance, scheduled for Thursday at 2:00 p.m.

According to the complaint, a robber entered the BMO Harris branch, approached a bank teller, and made a demand for money. The robber left the bank with money provided to him from the teller’s drawer, according to the complaint. After three additional robberies were carried out in Chicago suburbs and northwest Indiana by an individual resembling the November 21 robber of the Carol Stream BMO Harris branch, photos from and information about the subsequent robberies were provided to the media in an effort to identify the robber or robbers. The publicity resulted in two tipsters who both identified Shepherd as the individual shown in the bank surveillance photographs.

If convicted of the charge filed against him, Shepherd faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

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.