Man charged with Loop bank robbery following arrest on CTA bus

A man was arrested on a CTA bus on the South Side after robbing a bank of more than $4,000 Monday afternoon in the Loop.

Emmanuel Lewis Hart, 49, faces one federal count of bank robbery, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

A few minutes after 2 p.m. Monday, Hart walked into the First American Bank branch at 33 W. Monroe St. and handed the bank teller a note demanding cash and threatening a gun, according to the complaint. He then told the bank teller, “hurry up and hand me the money.”

The teller gathered $4,318 and gave it to Hart along with a hidden tracking device, according to the complaint. He took the money, including the tracker, and left the bank, walking east on Monroe Street.

Chicago Police and the FBI used the tracking device to follow the suspect to South Halsted between 64th and 65th streets, according to the complaint. Officers stopped a CTA bus because the tracker indicated it was onboard.

The officers searched the bus and found Hart, who matched the description of the robber, down to the watch the robber was wearing, according to the complaint. During a patdown, officers found a large amount of cash in Hart’s front pocket, including the tracking device.

Hart was previously convicted of three bank robberies in July 1999 and was sentenced to 84 months in prison, according to the complaint. In July 2005, he was convicted of escaping from a confinement facility, and convicted of bank robbery again in November 2007 and got 86 months in prison. He was again convicted in June 2013 of escaping from a confinement facility and sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.

Hart had his initial appearance Tuesday before Judge Sidney I. Schenkier and was ordered detained, according to FBI Special Agent John Althen. He is next scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on April 11.