Convicted robber charged in attempted theft

A convicted armed robber being held on other robbery charges in Palatine was linked to yet another armed robbery in Roselle, police said Friday.

William Bainer III, 35, of 1375 Court Marquerite, Hanover Park, confessed to an attempted armed robbery in Roselle on the morning of Nov. 3, police said. Bainer was linked to the robbery while being held for a Palatine robbery that police say he committed a few hours later the same day.

Police said Bainer walked into the Park-N-Shop at 624 W. Lake St. in Roselle around 10:52 a.m. Nov. 3, pointed a handgun at the clerk and told him to give him everything. Bainer struck the clerk's hand with the gun when the clerk tried to reach for the panic button, then fled the scene, police said.

Bainer also was charged with armed robbery and aggravated robbery in connection with an altercation in the parking lot of a store at 1311 N. Rand Road in Palatine at 4 p.m. Nov. 3, prosecutors said.

Authorities said Bainer was in the lot when he approached a woman and grabbed her purse.

Bainer, a fork lift operator, was convicted of armed robbery in 1991 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He also has been convicted on a misdemeanor charge of resisting a police officer in DuPage County, authorities said.

Bainer is charged with one count of attempted aggravated armed robbery in the Roselle incident. He is currently being held in Cook County jail on $100,000 bond.