FBI hopes digital billboards can help snare 'Granddad Bandit'

The "Granddad Bandit" may be responsible for robbing 21 banks across the eastern half of the U.S. since January 2009.

DISPATCH  06/01/2010

ST. LOUIS -- FBI agents here hope digital billboards can help them catch the "Granddad Bandit," a prolific bank robber suspected in holdups in St. Louis County and 20 other banks across the eastern half of the country since April 2009.

These billboards are already used in other big cities he's struck -- in Atlanta, for example, where his photo flashed across 50 electronic billboards for weeks. He hasn't robbed a bank in Atlanta since April 2. Agents think the same man has come to the St. Louis area, robbing the Regions Bank at 5600 South Lindbergh Boulevard on May 18.

The picture that will be displayed on a double-sided digital billboard on Interstate 70 one mile west of Lindbergh Boulevard – and other locations across Missouri and a handful of other states -- was taken from the May 18 robbery.

Zack Lowe of the FBI said that the picture taken that day was the best yet of the robber, as he has gradually abandoned the hats and other attempts at disguise used in other robberies.

Investigators believe that the Regions Bank could be the Bandit's 21st bank robbery since the robbery of a Mobile, Ala. bank on Jan. 16, 2009.

Since that time, he has concentrated on banks in the southeastern U.S., but has also, they believe, robbed a bank in Syracuse, New York. He's also wanted in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia.

Lowe said that investigators believe the man travels extensively, and are hoping that the billboard campaign will catch the attention of someone who knows him.

“The right person hasn't seen this picture yet,” Lowe said.

Lowe would not specify how much the robber had stolen from banks, other than saying, “He's taken a lot.”

Chris Kirn, vice president and general manager of Lamar Outdoor Advertising, one of the country's major billboard companies, said that the bandit's picture would appear for eight seconds at a time and alternate with six other images, for a total time of roughly three and a half hours per day.

Kirn said that the other companies could also begin showing the image soon.

It is the first time that the FBI's digital billboard partnership has been used in St. Louis, Kirn said.

The program, begun in 2007, has led to 35 arrests, Lowe said.

The robber is roughly six feet tall and weighs 210 to 230 pounds, the FBI says, and is 40 to 50 years old. He is white, balding and wears glasses, they say.

The FBI started using the digial billboards with Clear Channel, who came up wtih the plan. Since then, three other companies have joined the effort. The FBI says it now has access to more than 1,500 billboards nationwide. The hi-tech nature of the billboard allows photos to be posted quickly.

The man dubbed "the Granddad Bandit" is described as a bald white man with a heavy build, 50 to 60 years old and 6-foot to 6-foot-2. In the holdup at Regions Bank, he wore glasses, a short-sleeve tan or gray polo shirt and dark pants. He walked into the bank at 3:20 p.m.., walked up to a teller and pulled a note from a black billfold.

In other holdups, he has claimed he was armed.

FBI Special Agent Cynthia Myers in Atlanta once described the man's holdups as calm, saying he appears to be deliberate to not attract attention to himself.

"He is balding on top, he sometimes wears a baseball cap and a polo-type shirt, so he just looks like a regular guy when he walks into the bank," Myers has said.

The bandit struck Atlanta four times. Agents don't necessarily think he's from that area, but are hoping he's made enough of an impression on someone who saw him that he'll be arrested.

The FBI has used the billboards for a variety of reasons, including asking for help in tracking a dangerous felon to finding a missing child. In January, the FBI launched a 30-by-40 foot billboard in Times Square in New York City. In Boston this spring, electronic billboards were used to show a Rembrandt painting stolen in an art heist.

The FBI claims the billboards have helped them solve 30 cases. Filbert Romero in New Mexico was in the car with his mother when she noticied a billboard with her son's picture on it. He turned himself in to authorities that day. Police say he is a juvenile wanted for bank robbery. In another case, Richard Franklin Wiggins Jr. was arrested for money laundering and other crimes in Virginia three weeks after his picture was shown on digital billboards.

And in New Jersey, Walter Haskell was arrested in 2008 for an armed robbery after his image was put on digital billboards across the state. FBI officials credit tips generated from the billboard.

"If we have a crack at over a quarter-million people seeing that photo every day, then we have a very good chance at catching the person we're after," Special Agent Sean Quinn, a spokesman for the FBI in Newark, was quoted as saying after Haskell's arrest. "The exposure gets us started."

Anyone who suspects they know the robber is asked to call Crimestoppers at 866-371-TIPS, and could get a $1,000 Crimestoppers reward and up to $10,000 from the FBI.