Prostitute Turns In Alleged Bank Robber
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A prostitute given $300 in dye-stained $20 bills led police to the home of the man suspected of robbing a northwest suburban bank while wielding a hammer, according to the FBI.
The robbery occurred about 9:15 a.m. Monday at the TCF Bank branch at 1 West Devon Avenue in Park Ridge, a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Chicago on Thursday alleges.
That's when a man approached a teller window, opened his backpack and removed a hammer, according to the complaint. He held the hammer over his head and said words to the effect of "give me the money." A teller then placed the money -- about $1,937 -- in the backpack, along with a dye pack.
The complaint states the robber drove away in a late-model black Ford Mustang. Surveillance video showed the same man had visited two other Park Ridge banks earlier that day before robbing the TCF branch.
According to the complaint, an FBI agent on Wednesday interviewed a woman who works as a prostitute, who said that on Monday she had been directed by her agency to meet with a client at a Franklin Park hotel. When she got there the man she was supposed to meet wasn't there, and she was directed to another address, which was associated with 38-year-old Anthony M. Nugent of Morton Grove.
When she got there she was met by Nugent, and when she asked for her payment of $300, he gave it to her in $20 bills. The woman told the FBI agent Nugent then began behaving erratically, at which point she left.
The prostitute told the FBI that later that night she gave some of the money to her boyfriend, who told her it appeared to be dye-stained. She said she spent some of the money she got from Nugent, but turned over about $180, which appeared to be dye-stained. The woman then provided Nugent's address.
Park Ridge police also spoke to a source on Wednesday who said they were in a black Mustang with Nugent on Tuesday and noticed he removed some red dye-stained money from the console and glove compartment. When that person asked why the money was stained, Nugent told them he had spilled Kool-Aid or fruit punch on it, according to the complaint.
On Wednesday afternoon, Nugent was arrested outside his home while holding a snow shovel outside his garage.
Nugent, of the 8900 block of Mango Street in Morton Grove, was charged in a criminal complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court with one count of bank robbery.
He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys and remains in federal custody pending his next court appearance for the robbery, which is set for Monday at 2 p.m. Nugent faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Park Ridge police confirmed that last August, Nugent was arrested for pushing a 16-year-old girl to the ground in Park Ridge, then grabbing and ripping her shorts. He had approached the girl, then became angry when she would not talk with him.
Police said he was charged with aggravated battery after the attack at 5 p.m. on Aug. 15, 2012, in the 900 block of South Home Avenue, and originally ordered held on a $250,000 bond. That case is still pending in Cook County court.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
