By JIM HARDIN
Herald-Banner Staff
Royse City —
A man whose mother contacted the FBI after seeing his pictures on a bank robbery suspect website is expected to plead guilty Thursday to federal charges involving bank robberies in Rockwall, Garland and Quinlan.
According to court documents, Anthony Blue is scheduled to enter the guilty plea Tuesday in a Dallas federal court to an indictment charging him with the June 14 robberies of State Bank of Texas in Garland and Community Bank in Rockwall, and the July 8 robbery of American National Bank in Quinlan.
The criminal complaint against Blue stated that Georgette Burger contacted the Dallas FBI office on Aug. 12, reporting that she had visited the bandittracker.com website and believed her son robbed the Garland and Rockwall banks.
Bandittracker.com is a website that provides bank surveillance photos of bank robbery suspects and some written details of the robberies.
An FBI agent and a Garland Police Department officer visited the mother and her husband, Craig Burger, on Aug. 15. Officers showed the couple bank surveillance photos of all three robberies. The Burgers agreed that the man identified as the robber was their son, according to the criminal complaint.
The criminal complaint added that the young man’s father, David Blue, also confirmed that the suspected bank robber was his son.
The criminal complaint dated Sept. 23 stated that at 10:20 a.m. June 14, a man entered State Bank of Texas in Garland and handed a note to a teller. Written on one side of the note was, “No alarm all the money now 15 seconds then bad will happen hurry 9mm in waist.” The other side of the note stated, “all the money now or else.”
The teller handed over $493.
The complaint stated that the man fled on foot. No vehicle description was given at the time. The teller gave the suspect an electronic tracking device that responding officers unsuccessfully attempted to locate.
Less than an hour later, the complaint stated, the Rockwall Police Department reported that a man robbed Community Bank at 201 E. Kaufman, across from the Historic Rockwall County Courthouse.
A “factual resume” document stated that the robber approached a teller at the Rockwall bank and told her, “Sorry it has to be this way.” He handed her a note that stated, “50’s and 100’s nobody gets hurt.”
The document stated that after the teller handed over $3,075, the robber apologized and left the bank.
Then, on July 8, a man entered American National Bank, 8908 Highway 34 South in Quinlan, approached a teller and presented a note that stated, “Empty Drawer 20’s, 50’s, 100’s, 5 seconds.” According to the court document, the man told the teller that he was sorry and that times were hard.
The teller emptied her cash drawer and handed over $5,234 to the man.
