Audio Transcript

Mr. Schiff: A bank robber in New Jersey held up 18 banks.  Special Agent Steve Grassie at the FBI’s Newark office and area police investigated…

Mr. Grassie: "He got away with just over $81,000.”

Mr. Schiff: Grassie says the thief was called the Hat Bandit or the Mad Hatter…

Mr. Grassie: "In every one of his bank robberies he wore some sort of a head covering in the form of a hat.  I’d say in about 15 or so of the bank robberies it was a baseball hat and then he would, had kind of like a hunter’s hat and a regular kind of a knit hat in a couple of the bank robberies.  But primarily it was a baseball hat.”

Mr. Schiff: Grassie says he used notes...

Mr. Grassie: "Walked into the bank and he would hand the victim bank teller a note explaining it was a robbery and that he wanted the money, no dye packs; then sometimes he would say that he had a gun, in the note.”

Mr. Schiff: The thief plead guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  The FBI chased this fella’ along with the Union, Essex, Morris and Middlesex County Police Departments along with officers from Union, Newark and several other New Jersey cities.  I’m Neal Schiff of the Bureau and that's the FBI's Closed Case of the Week.