Authorities: Most of cash stolen from Rolling Meadows bank and tossed from car recovered
Authorities on Monday said they recovered most of the cash tossed from a car along the Kennedy Expressway on Saturday by the man who robbed a Rolling Meadows bank.
Stephen Galati, 66, was charged with bank robbery for stealing $2,510 from the Fifth Third Bank branch at 1801 W. Algonquin Road in Rolling Meadows at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors Monday.
Chicago police recovered $2,122 - along with a GPS tracker the bank teller included in the suspect's black duffel bag - from alongside the expressway near East River Road, according to an FBI special agent's affidavit included in the complaint.
Cops said they saw money being thrown from a car, leading some drivers to stop to pick it up. Officers temporarily closed the expressway to gather what they could, then returned to the station to inventory it all.
Earlier Saturday morning, authorities said, Galati dropped off a relative at work in Rolling Meadows and said he was going to go grocery shopping, pick up prescriptions and run errands.
Instead, the complaint alleges, he walked into the Rolling Meadows bank and handed a teller a demand note that said: "This is a robbery. Don't do anything stupid."
He also told the teller, "Do as I told you, or I will shoot you," according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities said that after Galati took his bag filled with cash, he walked into an adjacent restaurant and later was spotted driving a black Ford Fusion in Schaumburg. Officers on patrol said they saw the car speed past them on Basswood Road north of Golf Road while the driver tossed the bag from the moving vehicle. A search of the bag didn't turn up any cash, but officers said they did find a white hair net, pair of black gloves and sunglasses.
Police said Galati got on the eastbound Jane Addams Tollway at Roselle Road and later was spotted around Terminals 2 and 3 at O'Hare International Airport. He continued along the Kennedy Expressway, then got off at Cumberland Avenue and took police down streets until the chase ended in Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood, where he was arrested on the 6800 block of North Olmsted Avenue, authorities said.