The FBI has announced a $10,000 reward in a hunt for the “Route 91 bandit,” who has robbed at least 11 banks across four New England states since September.
So named because the banks are all off Interstate 91, the robber has threatened to use a gun, and the FBI said he is considered armed and dangerous.
“We need to put a stop to this man’s crime spree before someone gets hurt,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Boston, said in a statement Thursday.
The first bank was robbed in West Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 9, and the most recent robbery was in Greenfield, in the same state, on Jan. 27, the FBI said.
He has robbed banks in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont, the FBI said.
The robber is described as being white and 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 8 inches tall.
In a security video released by the FBI he is wearing a blue medical style mask and a black sweatshirt that reads “Post University” on the front and “No Hall Like OHall 2016-2017” on the back. Post University is a college in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Of the two dozen unknown bank robbers whom the FBI has listed on its website, only one is believed to have committed more robberies.
The “Midday Bandit” is believed to have carried out 12 bank robberies in Chicago and other parts of Illinois from 2014 to 2016 and attempted three robberies during that time, according to the FBI.
