Two Arrested in Suburban Armored Car Heist

FBI Chicago Division
Special Agent Joan Hyde
March 5, 2009

Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was joined today by Thomas Folliard, Chief of the Hazel Crest, Illinois Police Department, in announcing the arrest of two men in connection with yesterday’s robbery of over $400,000 from a Garda armored car. The robbery took place at approximately 8:30 a.m. as the armored car was making a scheduled stop at the Speedway Gas station, located at 1802 West 170 th Place.

JASON JACKSON, age 28, of 1109 West Cermak Road, Apartment 4, in Broadview and JOHN ROBINSON, JR., age 29, of Apartment 5 at the same Broadview address, were both arrested by FBI special agents and Hazel Crest police officers, without incident, late yesterday. JACKSON was taken into custody at the FBI’s Orland Park office while ROBINSON was apprehended at his residence. Both men were charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of Hobbs Act - Robbery, which is a felony offense.

According to the complaint, Hazel Crest police officers and FBI agents responded to a 9-1-1 robbery call from a crew member of a Garda Armored car yesterday morning. Initial reports indicated that a lone robber armed with a handgun and dressed in black pants and a black hooded jacket and wearing a black ski mask, approached the driver and gained entry to the vehicle by threatening him with the weapon. After stuffing a significant amount of cash into a black duffel bag that he brought with him, the robber fled on foot, running down an alley adjacent to the gas station.

Preliminary investigation by the responding officers and agents led them to suspect that a member of the armored car crew might have been involved in the robbery. Subsequent interviews of crew members and witnesses to the robbery, along with a thorough forensic processing of the crime scene, confirmed investigator’s suspicions and resulted in the arrest of the armored car’s driver, JASON JACKSON, a nine-month employee of the Garda Armored Transportation Company.

Additional investigation identified JOHN ROBINSON, Jr., a long-time friend of JACKSON, as the robber of the armored car. ROBINSON was eventually located and arrested and evidence linking both men to the staged robbery was recovered.

Early this morning, FBI agents and Hazel Crest police officers were led to a house in Chicago where $407,000 in currency, believed taken during the theft, was recovered.

JACKSON and ROBINSON both appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in Chicago, earlier today, at which time they were formally charged. Both men were ordered held without bond, pending their next scheduled court appearance and are being housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago. If convicted of the charge filed against them, JACKSON and ROBINSON both face a possible sentence of up to 20 years’ incarceration.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Copies of the criminal complaint filed in this case are available from the Chicago FBI’s press office at (312) 829-1199.