SPRINGFIELD, Mass.–After establishing a DNA-link, a man known as the I-91 bandit and sought in connection with more than a dozen bank and credit union robberies in this region has been arrested, while separately, in New York, a man has pleaded guilty to robbing two credit unions.
In Massachusetts, federal prosecutors said Taylor Dziczek, 30, is the man who was dubbed the “Route 91 bandit” by the FBI because he is accused of 14 robberies, stealing more than $137,000 from banks and credit unions running all along the I-91 corridor in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.
He was arrested after allegedly leaving evidence at a robbery earlier this year. Dciczek, of Chicopee, Mass., in late May allegedly handed a People’s United Bank teller in Plainville, Conn. a note with words to the effect of “I have a gun. Don’t call 911. Don’t set off any alarms.”
He then showed the teller what appeared to be a black firearm, though the gun may have been fake, according to prosecutors. The note added, “Don’t be a hero.”
During the robbery, which was similar to those that hit other financial institutions, Dziczek allegedly dropped paper money wrappers that were discarded at the scene and which subsequently underwent a DNA analysis, court records indicate.
Evidence Seized
Five months later, WWIP cited prosecutor’s reports that Dziczek was at the MGM casino in Springfield, Mass., where he was drinking a Red Bull energy drink out of a black straw. Multiple agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were surveilling him, according to court records, and one of them collected the discarded Red Bull can and straw as evidence. It was not clear what led the agents to surveil him in the first place, WWIP said.
A laboratory analysis of DNA left on the straw was connected to DNA found on discarded money wrappers at the Plainville robbery, prosecutors said. Dziczek was charged in that robbery last week. In 2017, Mr. Dziczek was convicted of a 2015 unarmed robbery of the Easthampton Savings Bank in Hadley, Mass., according to court documents.
Guilty Plea in Buffalo
Meanwhile, a Buffalo man who robbed two credit unions at gunpoint in 2019 has pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated bank robbery, U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced.
Myron McCollum, 35, faces a maximum of 50 years in prison when he returns for sentencing in May before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
According to prosecutors, on July 25, 2019, McCollum and an accomplice, Ronald Morris, 47, armed with pepper spray and a pistol, took $290,500 from a vault at the South Towns Community FCU in Lackawanna, N.Y.
The second robbery occurred Nov. 7, 2019, when McCollum, Morris and another accomplice, Carl I. Wilson Jr., 37, armed with a pistol, took $148,793.90 from tellers' drawers and the vault at the Clarence Community and School FCU in Clarence, N.Y., prosecutors said.
Morris and Wilson were previously convicted and are awaiting sentencing.
Just in Time for the Holidays, CUToday’s Free Morning Headline Email is Now Double-Free!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com