A serial bank robber — who dabbles as a fictional crime author and has an affinity for luxury wheels — allegedly knocked off two more financial institutions near Detroit, a year after being released from prison, officials said Wednesday.
Dorian Trevor Sykes, 41, was arrested Tuesday and accused of robbing the Credit Union One in Sterling Heights on March 6 and then a Chase branch in Lathrup Village on March 12, according to a criminal complaint written by police officer Matthew Willard, who is assigned to the FBI's Macomb County Gang and Violent Crime Task Force.
In the March 6 incident, a man walked into the credit union, handed a teller a note and said, "This is a robbery," according to Willard. The man asked for "big bills" before fleeing in a "black crossover vehicle, possible a Mercedes sedan," with $10,169, the complaint continued.
Fingerprints lifted from the credit union's front door matched that of Sykes, who drives a black Mercedes sedan, authorities said
Then six days later, a man walked into the Chase location and gave a teller "a withdraw slip, which stated, 'Give me all the money ... I have a gun ... I will kill everyone in here," the complaint stated.
"The robber also pointed to his right side, implying that he had a weapon," Willard added.
The suspect fled with about $3,400 and surveillance cameras showed him "running behind a condominium complex and" entering "a parked white Rolls Royce SUV."
Sykes had been released from prison in February last year and was under federal supervision, officials said.
When he’s not allegedly robbing banks, Sykes appears to spend time behind the keyboard in his side hustle as an author of crime novels.
His works include “King of Detroit,” “The Good Life,” “Going All Out” and “Born to Die.”
His probation officer confirmed that Sykes drove a black Mercedes sedan and cellphone records placed him near the credit union and bank at the times of those robberies, according to Willard.
Sykes, who is known to frequent the MGM Grand Detroit, was nearly arrested March 12 near that casino, officials said.
Cellphone pings placed him near MGM that night, but when law enforcement moved in on Sykes, he sped away in a Rolls Royce SUV and remained free until his arrest Tuesday, police said.
Sykes made his initial appearance before a judge Tuesday and asked to represent himself in court.
Before his release from prison, Sykes had been serving time for two robberies he pulled Aug. 12, 2019. He hit a Citizen's Bank in Warren, getting away with $1,220, before knocking off a Comerica Bank in Oak Park and fleeing with $810.
Those robberies happened "just six weeks after being released from a 17-year prison sentence for the same type of behavior" as he was "on federal supervised release when he committed those crimes," Assistant U.S. Attorney Frances Carlson wrote in a 2020 sentencing memo, asking for a 71-month sentence.
"Sykes' history paints a troubling and unmistakable picture of a person who has a complete disregard for the law," according to Carlson.
