Seat Belt Violation Leads to Arrest of Serial Bank Robbery Suspect

FBI Chicago Division
Special Agent Joan Hyde
February 10, 2009

Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Jody P. Weis, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD); and Thomas Dart, Cook County Sheriff, announced today the arrest of CHARLES MATHUS, age 41, whose last known address was 1519 West 82 nd Street in Chicago. MATHUS was arrested on Saturday afternoon, without incident, by CPD Officers following a routine traffic stop for a possible seat belt violation.

MATHUS was charged in a criminal complaint filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one (1) count of Bank Robbery, which is a felony offense. The complaint charges MATHUS with the January 27, 2009 armed robbery of the Bank of America (BOA) branch, located at 7131 South Stony Island in Chicago.

According to the complaint, MATHUS entered the BOA branch around 9:30 AM, approached a teller and handed her a note, announcing a robbery and demanding money. The note implied that MATHUS was armed and threatened the teller with harm, if his demands were not met. After receiving

$2,050 in cash, MATHUS fled the bank on foot with his direction and means of escape not observed.

Following the filing of the complaint, MATHUS was entered as a wanted person in a nationwide law enforcement computer system. During the traffic stop on Saturday, a check of this computer system by CPD Officers revealed an outstanding warrant for MATHUS’ arrest. MATHUS was subsequently turned over to members of the Chicago FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force (VCTF), who had been investigating a string of unsolved bank robberies.

Prior to this robbery, MATHUS was a suspect in two other thefts that were being investigated by the VCTF. One was the December 22, 2008 robbery of the Park National Bank, located at 815 West 63 rd Street. The second was the December 31, 2008 robbery at the Charter One Bank branch, located at 11960 South Western Avenue in Blue Island. According to the complaint, MATHUS is also a suspect in the February 2, 2009 robbery at the Harris Bank branch, located at 555 Burnham Avenue in Calumet City.

MATHUS appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery Cole in Chicago, late yesterday, at which time he was formally charged. MATHUS was ordered held without bond, pending his next scheduled court appearance, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago. If convicted of the charge filed against him, MATHUS faces a possible sentence of up to twenty (20) years incarceration.

The Chicago FBI’s VCTF is comprised of FBI Special Agents, Detectives from the CPD and Investigators from the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department.

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: A copy of the criminal complaint filed in this case is available from the Chicago FBI’s Press Office at (312) 829-1199.