Man arrested in bank robberies in Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg
A Lake in the Hills man was being held without bond Thursday, in connection with a pair of recent bank robberies - one in Hoffman Estates and the other in Schaumburg, according to the FBI.
Tony Hildebrand, 33, of the 500 block of Blackhawk Drive, was charged with two counts of bank robbery, as part of a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
The complaint also implicates Hildebrand in a pair of phone calls in which he tried to distract police before he robbed each bank by reporting false bomb threats.
Hildebrand is accused of sticking up a TCF Bank in Hoffman Estates on Saturday and of holding up another TCF Bank in Schaumburg Monday, making off with a total of $5,421.
Both banks were located inside Jewel food stores, according to the complaint, filed Wednesday.
According to the complaint: during the first robbery at 6:36 p.m. Saturday, Hildebrand handed a teller a note that said, "Give me all your 100's, 20's 10's 5's and 1's or you will be hurt."
The teller complied and gave him $472 cash.
Hildebrand collected the money and the note and left the bank, driving away in a white conversion van.
Twenty minutes before the robbery, Hildebrand phoned the Schaumburg police department and told a dispatcher that a friend was headed to Woodfield Mall with a homemade bomb.
At 2:12 p.m. Monday, Hildebrand told the teller not to say anything, then passed a note, that said, "Give me all your 20's, 50's 100's. Everything in your drawer. Do not give me any fake money."
Hildebrand also kept his hand close to his body, implying he had a gun, the complaint said.
The teller gave Hildebrand $4,949 from both drawers and he fled the scene in the same van.
Fifteen minutes before the robbery, Hildebrand called Schaumburg High School and said, "There's a bomb in your school. Don't try to evacuate the building. We are watching."
Wednesday, at 2:15 p.m., Streamwood police arrested Hildebrand Tuesday for driving on a suspended license.
A subsequent search of the van turned up a piece of paper that said "remember to wipe off fingerprints," and had the address of the TCF bank in Schaumburg.
Police also found a notebook in which the top page said, "Do not touch the alarm. Give me all the money. 100's, 50's, 20's 10's. You have 10 seconds or people will be hurt!"
Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in Chicago ordered that Hildebrand be held without bond, pending his next court date, which is Monday.
He is now in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center , a federal detention facility in downtown Chicago, authorities said.
If found guilty, Hildebrand could spend up to 40 years in prison.