OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Authorities knew they would need a lucky break
to catch a middle-aged bank robber who pulled off a dizzying number of
heists in a three-month crime spree that spanned across nine states.
The
break came when a confidential informant gave police a name:
54-year-old Michael Eugene Brewster. Then police in the small eastern
Oklahoma town of Roland provided the luck.
A routine traffic stop
by the town's assistant police chief led to the arrest of a man
nicknamed the "Bucket List Bandit" because the suspect allegedly
demanded money from frightened tellers and told them he had only months
to live.
"They determined the vehicle was reported stolen, and one
thing led to another. Ultimately, they called us and we were able to
determine who he was," said Rick Rains, a spokesman for the FBI's
Oklahoma City office. "It was a little bit of luck on our part."
Rains
said Brewster was arrested in a stolen SUV he borrowed from a friend 10
days before the first robbery and that it had improper Utah license
plates.
Rains would not say whether Brewster was armed. In the robberies, the suspect told tellers he had a weapon but never showed one.
Brewster
appeared briefly Friday afternoon in U.S. Magistrate Court in Muskogee,
Okla., shackled at his hands and feet and flanked by a pair of federal
marshals. He acknowledged being the man sought by the FBI, and said only
"Yes, ma'am" and "No, ma'am" when questioned by the judge.
He was
ordered held at the local jail pending court proceedings in
Pennsylvania. Public defender Julia O'Connell said the process could
take two months.
According to the FBI, Brewster had crisscrossed
the country since June, hitting banks in nine states and telling
employees he had only months to live. In some instances, the suspect
explained he was suffering from cancer.
It was only on Thursday
that the FBI issued an arrest warrant for Brewster, saying a
confidential informant gave the agency his name and birthdate following a
Monday heist at a Huntington Bank branch in Erie, Pa. Surveillance
video from a nearby carwash showed an SUV similar to the rental Brewster
was accused of taking from an acquaintance in Pensacola on June 11.
The
first robbery occurred June 21 in Arvada, Colo., and by July 6, the
suspect was believed to have robbed banks in Flagstaff, Ariz.;
Pocatello, Idaho; and Roy, Utah. He pick up his nickname there after a
teller told police that the robber passed her a note demanding money and
said, "I have four months to live."
Following a two-week lull,
robberies resumed in Winston-Salem, N.C., and within five weeks the
Bucket List Bandit was being blamed for heists in Chattanooga, Tenn.;
Bloomington, Ill.; Columbia and O'Fallon, Mo., the FBI said. About two
weeks passed before Monday's robbery in Erie.
A teller at the Erie
bank picked Brewster's photo out of a lineup, and authorities then
reviewed surveillance video and found an "obvious likeness" to Brewster
during the nine prior robberies. Photos from the various robberies show a
man with grayish, thinning hair, generally combed or brushed backward,
wearing glasses and what appears to be the same blue polo shirt with a
front pocket.
"We knew this was our person; we just didn't know
who was going to be lucky enough to get ahold of him," said Bloomington
Police Chief Randall McKinley, who said Brewster is suspected of robbing
a PNC bank branch on Aug. 17 in the central Illinois college town.
McKinley
said it's not uncommon to have serial bank robberies in the same
community or state, but it's rare to have them stretch over so many
states.
"To have them go all over the country is very interesting," he said.
It
wasn't clear why Brewster was traveling in Roland, just west of Fort
Smith, Ark., and more than 1,000 miles from Erie. Investigators also
hadn't determined whether Brewster is terminally ill, said Danny Hammon,
a sergeant with the Roy, Utah, police department.
The federal
arrest warrant issued in Pennsylvania indicates that Brewster is wanted
for allegedly borrowing but not returning his Florida acquaintance's
black Chevy Captiva. The vehicle was similar to one described by
witnesses at several of the robberies authorities think Brewster
committed.
No one was hurt in any of the robberies and officials
declined to say how much money the suspect stole, except for the $4,080
taken from the Erie bank, which was disclosed in the FBI arrest warrant.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
