FBI: 'Swine Flu Bandit' nabbed outside bank

A serial bank robber dubbed the "Swine Flu Bandit" was arrested in the South Loop Wednesday afternoon, apparently as he was planning to commit his 10th holdup, the FBI said this afternoon.

Matthew D. Mahoney, 28, of Chicago, was arrested Wednesday afternoon by members of the Chicago FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force in the 1200 block of South Wabash Avenue.

Members of the task force were inside the First American Bank at 1241 S. Wabash Ave., which had been robbed by the "Swine Flu Bandit" in September, when they noticed Mahoney standing outside.

"He not only matched the description of the robber, but was wearing what appeared to be the same clothes that were worn during robberies earlier in the week," the FBI said in a statement.

When the task force members approached Mahoney, they discovered a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in his coat pocket, the FBI said.

He was arrested without incident. Although he is suspected in eight additional holdups, he was charged in a federal complaint today with one count of bank robbery in connection with the Saturday robbery of a Chase Bank branch at 550 S. Dearborn St., during which he escaped with more than $55,000.

During that holdup, which happened just before 2 p.m. that day, Mahoney allegedly approached a bank employee, pulled a handgun from the pocket of his jacket and announced the robbery.

He then demanded to be escorted to the vault, which he forced a second bank employee to open, the FBI said, before ordering two bank employees to fill a large brown bag that he brought with him with cash.

After the bag was filled, he forced one of the bank employees to accompany him to the bank's exit, warning them not to activate any alarms, the FBI said. He then disappeared, they said, into a passing crowd.

The "Swine Flu Bandit" was given the moniker because he wore a white surgical mask in his earlier thefts, telling bank employees that he had or was recovering from the Swine Flu.

He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert today, at which time he was formally charged. He was ordered held in the Metropolitan Correction Center without bail, pending his Tuesday court appearance.

If convicted, Mahoney faces a possible 20-year prison sentence.

--Jeremy Gorner

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