Mississippi man charged with Lake View bank robbery

A Mississippi man was charged with robbing a bank Sunday morning in the Lake View neighborhood on the North Side.

About 10 a.m., Sidney Hassell, 64, walked up to a teller at a TCF Bank branch located inside a Jewel-Osco grocery store at 3531 N. Broadway and slid the teller a deposit slip, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Illinois.

“This is a robbery,” Hassell told the teller. “Don’t make any sudden movements, just give me all the money in the drawer.”

The teller handed over $560 in cash, including four $20 bills with recorded serial numbers that the bank maintained as “bait bills,” according to the FBI. A GPS tracking device was also encased within the bills.

After the robber left the bank, the teller activated the bank’s silent alarm and called 911, the FBI said.

Responding officers tracked the location of the GPS device and spotted a vehicle driven by a man who matched the teller’s description and photos from the surveillance camera, according to the FBI.

Officers stopped the vehicle and saw a hat and jacket on the passenger seat that matched the description of the robber’s clothing, the FBI said. Hassell was then taken to the TCF branch that had been robbed, where the teller identified him as the robber.

Hassell was charged with a single felony count of bank robbery. Information about his bond and next scheduled court date wasn’t immediately known.