Feds: Suspect caught trying to rob Hoffman Estates bank for third time

A northwest suburban man has been charged with robbing a bank in his hometown twice, before being captured as he tried to hold it up for the the third time last weekend.

Shelton Brooks, 52, of the 1900 block of Kenilworth Circle in Hoffman Estates, was charged in a federal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court with bank robbery.

On Dec. 15, 2014, a man walked into the Hoffman Estates Community Bank at 2200 W. Higgins Rd. at 8:45 a.m., according to the complaint. He gave the teller a note that said, “SORRY!!! FAMILY IN NEED NO DYE PACKS EMPTY YOUR DRAWER NO SUDDEN MOVES.” She gave him $6,898 in cash and he left with the money in a bag.

Nearly a month later, at 8:39 a.m. on Jan. 13, a man walked into the same bank and slid the teller a note that said, ”SORRY!!! FAMILY IN NEED EMPTY BOTH OF YOUR DRAWERS AND GET 50 THOUSAND IN 100’S NO DYE PACKS OR SUDDEN MOVES THANKS.”

The bank’s branch manager was standing next to the teller and thought it was the same man who had robbed the bank a month earlier, according to the complaint. During the second robbery, the suspect got away with more than $11,000.

About 8:30 a.m. on May 16, a man entered the bank and made eye contact with a teller and the security guard, then turned to leave, according to the complaint.

As he turned around, the teller said, “Robber! Robber!” According to the complaint, she recognized him from surveillance footage as the suspect in the other robberies.

The security guard followed the man and asked him to stop, while the teller called 911. Hoffman Estates police responded and arrested Brooks.

Brooks admitted to an FBI agent that he robbed the bank in December 2014 and again in January, and that he was planning to rob it for a third time on May 16, according to the complaint. He has only charged with the January robbery.