An Aurora man was charged Monday with robbing $1,532 from a Naperville bank, and remains a suspect in two similar stickups earlier this year in Darien and Lombard, FBI officials said.
Carl R. Triggs, 44, lives in an apartment complex in the 1200 block of Nantucket Road in Aurora. He is charged with bank robbery in the March 15 holdup of the Bank of America branch at 1301 E. Ogden Ave. in Naperville, across the street from the Ogden Mall shopping center.
An eight-page criminal complaint and affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago declared Triggs entered the bank that morning clad in a black baseball cap with a Chicago White Sox logo on it, along with sunglasses, a black, zippered coat and a hooded sweatshirt embossed with the word “Alabama.”
A teller told authorities a man, later identified as Triggs, gave the clerk “a demand note written in black ink on a piece of paper from a small, spiral memo pad,” the affidavit read in part. “The note contained words to the effect of, ‘This is not a joke,’ and ‘Give me your money’ or ‘Give me all of your money,'” the affidavit continued.
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The teller said the robber then whispered, ‘I have a gun. I will use it. Make it quick.'” The robber then left the bank, according to officials, taking both the money and the note.
Two other bank employees told the FBI they saw the robber drive away in a black Toyota Camry, according to the affidavit. All three workers provided similar descriptions of Triggs, the affidavit stated.
The FBI two days later received a telephone tip from someone who identified the robber as Triggs. FBI agents then examined Triggs’ Facebook page, which featured a photo of him “wearing sunglasses that appear(ed) to be the same sunglasses worn in the bank robbery,” according to the affidavit.
FBI agents March 20 interviewed an employee of the apartment complex, who said Triggs on March 15 – the day of the robbery – paid his $1,235 monthly rent with a money order.
Further investigation produced an acquaintance who confirmed Triggs drove a black Toyota Camry, and who said Triggs had mentioned he “was having problems with his landlord,” the affidavit continued.
Triggs also is a suspect in the Jan. 13 holdup of the US Bank branch at 45 W. Roosevelt Road in Lombard; and the Jan. 30 stickup of the West Suburban Bank branch at 8001 S. Cass Ave. in Darien, the affidavit declared.
As in the Naperville robbery, the suspect in those cases “wore similar sunglasses and used a demand note written on small, spiral memo pad paper.” The West Suburban bank robber also wore an Alabama sweatshirt similar to the one Triggs allegedly had on during the Naperville crime, according to the affidavit.
An examination of records on file in DuPage County Circuit Court revealed Triggs since 1995 has been arrested several times for shoplifting. He was sentenced in December 1996 to three years in prison on a felony charge of retail theft in Wheaton, and two years in prison for stealing medication in October 1996 from a Target store in Villa Park, records showed.
Triggs is in custody, and was scheduled to appear Tuesday for a hearing in federal court.