Vanishing bandit strikes again Written By Leon Thompson Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Trail goes cold in Swanton bank robbery ST. ALBANS CITY –– Police Chief Gary Taylor was in a meeting at city hall Tuesday morning when he heard the news: a masked, hooded robber with a knife had just hit the Chittenden Bank in Swanton, in broad daylight, and then disappeared, on foot.     “He did it again,” Taylor thought.     Like Taylor, officers investigating yesterday’s bank robbery and two others that have occurred in Franklin County within the last month can only say, “If it’s the same person …” But they believe it is.     “There are obviously similarities,” said Vermont State Police (VSP) Lt. Brian Miller, standing outside the Chittenden early Tuesday afternoon with Leonard “Joey” Stell, Swanton police chief.     Taylor agrees.     “I would concur with Lt. Miller,” he said today.     After the city bank robbery earlier this month – also committed at a Chittenden Bank – Taylor speculated that the suspect would strike again locally. How did he know that?     “Thirty-three years of law enforcement experience, and 24 of those as a detective,” he replied. He would not elaborate. “I don’t want to send any wrong information out to the bad guy.”     Aside from physical descriptions of the robber, police are indeed being extremely reticent about him and the trio of crimes he may have committed in Richford, St. Albans City and – now – Swanton Village.     Questions linger: Does he act alone? Is he connected to the man that robbed a Chittenden Bank in Brattleboro at 9 a.m. Tuesday? Are they all tied to the Massachusetts duo that was arrested following a Rochester bank robbery, also this month? Did the Franklin County robber calculate his crimes and map them out beforehand? Are there more banks on his list? Will he return? Or is he done?     Miller and Taylor answer those questions with yet another single phrase: “Anything is possible.”     “I do not want to tip my hand to this person,” Taylor said.     Tuesday morning was typical in Swanton Village, at the busy intersection of Grand Avenue and Canada Street. A brisk, fall wind blew falling leaves across the lawn of the Chittenden Bank, just after 10:30 a.m.     He entered the front, tinted-glass door of the red-brick building when there were no customers. He wore a brown, hooded sweatshirt with a unique skull design on the front, a white baseball cap under his hoodie, a red scarf cover part of his face, but not his eyes, and brown pants.     The tellers sized him up, knowing they would soon tell police he was a white male, probably in his twenties, about 5’8”, around 170 pounds – just like the robbers in Richford and St. Albans.     He showed a knife and Hannaford grocery bag. He demanded money. The teller obliged. He left on foot, out the back door, and vanished.     Within minutes, officers from several law enforcement agencies swarmed the scene: Swanton Village Police, the VSP, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). No FBI. Only state and local agencies handle Vermont bank robberies now, Miller explained.     Two St. Albans City detectives also arrived for two reasons – assistance, and to compare notes from the bank robbery they recently investigated 10 miles south.     U.S. Border Patrol agents were also in Swanton with a canine unit and a low-flying helicopter that, at one point, hovered over the village green and searched along the Missisquoi River.     Pedestrians walked by the Chittenden and gathered in a Gulf station parking lot across the street, informing each other of the robbery and gathering info for the rumor mill. Motorists slowed and rubbernecked, sometimes rolling down their windows to get the scoop from officers that crossed the street on their way to a white house that might have been on the robber’s path of escape.     The bank closed but reopened in the afternoon, soon after Miller and Stell gave statements to reporters.     “If it’s related (to the other robberies), it’s certainly of concern,” Miller said. “We’re hoping the public will be able to identify something.”     Miller said police have gathered more evidence and information after each robbery has occurred.     “It’s just a matter of time before the person’s caught,” he declared.     He also noted that the suspect is racking up serious penalties with each robbery he commits – meaning years of jail time is realistic.     “Robbing a bank is serious,” Miller said. “The more you rob, the more serious it becomes.”     The robberies in Richford and St. Albans City also occurred at the same time – around mid-morning. In St. Albans, the man dropped an insignificant amount of money on Brainerd Street during his escape.     The first robbery transpired Sept. 25, at the TD Bank in Richford. No one has been injured in any incident.

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