Chicago man sentenced for robbing Prospect Heights bank teller
A Chicago man who took a debit card from a teller while he was trying to rob a Prospect Heights bank pleaded guilty to attempted armed robbery.
A Cook County judge sentenced Antonio Crawford, 22, to six years in prison late last month in exchange for Crawford's guilty plea to robbing the employee during a failed July 2011 robbery of the Village Bank and Trust.
Crawford, who received an eight-year sentence on federal charges, will serve the sentence concurrently. He received credit for the 404 days he has spent in custody since his arrest.
Crawford entered the bank at 1845 E. Rand Road at about 4:40 p.m. on July 19, 2011, gave a manager a note demanding money and lifted his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband, Cook County prosecutors said during Crawford's bond hearing. After learning the bank's money was secured in a vault, Crawford took the teller's debit card and fled to a cab he had waiting for him a block and a half from the bank. Authorities say the defendant later robbed the cabdriver at gunpoint on Chicago's West Side and fled. Police located him through his ID, which he left behind in the cab, authorities said. Police arrested him at his mother's home in Dolton five days after he stole the teller's debit card, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Crawford has a 2008 burglary conviction in California. Published reports also indicated he was charged with robbing a Chase Bank in Matteson on July 12, 2011.