Fingerprints and video lead FBI to suspect in Oak Park bank heist

A man was charged with robbing a Community Bank bank branch in west suburban Oak Park last month, threatening to start shooting if the teller tried to lock the doors.

The robber walked into the Community Bank branch at 1001 Lake St. at 2:09 p.m. July 19 and struck up a conversation with a teller, according to a federal criminal complaint. At some point in the conversation, he announced a robbery and demanded money from the register.

After ordering the teller not to include any dye packs or GPS tracking devices, the teller added more money to the envelope, the complaint said. Before leaving, the robber threatened to “start shooting” if the doors were locked. He then made off with $2,874.

Investigators collected evidence at the scene, and the robber’s finger and palm prints were a match to Dane Phenegar, a 28-year-old man on probation, according to the FBI.

Three hours after the incident, a witness called Oak Park police to say she spoke to a man minutes before the robbery who matched the robber’s description at a parking lot near the bank branch at 150 Forest Ave., the complaint said. The man had asked her how he could exit the parking garage.

After returning home, the witness learned the bank had been robbed, and, based on the description, told investigators she believed the person she talked to was the suspect.

The teller and the witness both positively identified Phenegar as the robber on July 21, the complaint said.

In addition, surveillance footage showed a man who resembled Phenegar enter the parking garage, take an elevator to the fourth level, then walk downstairs to the first level before leaving, the complaint said. The robber was also seen throwing a rolled-up fisherman’s hat into a garbage can before leaving the garage. A later search uncovered a pair of sunglasses rolled up in a fisherman’s hat.

That same day, a probation officer assigned to Phenegar positively identified him as the robber based on surveillance photos, the complaint said.

Phenegar was taken into custody July 28 and charged with the robbery, the FBI said. He was ordered held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.