By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer
HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP
February 08, 2007 12:58 am
—
A Pittsburgh man pleaded guilty Wednesday to robbing a Hempfield Township bank in 2005, 15 other banks, and trying to rob another.
Thomas W. Charlier, 40, pleaded guilty to a bill of information to 16 counts of bank robbery and one count of attempted bank robbery, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Pittsburgh.
Two of the bank robberies occurred in West Virginia, the rest in Pennsylvania.
U.S. District Court Judge Gustave Diamond, Pittsburgh, set sentencing for May 9. Charlier faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
The First National Bank at 51 Hadley Road, was the first bank Charlier is charged with robbing. He walked into the bank shortly after noon Aug. 1, 2005, and handed a teller a note demanding cash. The teller gave him $1,150, and Charlier left, last seen running southwest toward Williamson Road, officials said.
Police unsuccessfully searched nearby woods on foot and from a helicopter, and with dogs.
Witnesses described the robber as dirty with an unkempt appearance.
Charlier was initially charged in an FBI complaint with robbing the Dollar Bank in Mount Lebanon on Oct. 25, 2006. The FBI said a surveillance camera photograph taken during that robbery showed a man that police in Castle Shannon and elsewhere said was similar to the man who had robbed banks in their jurisdictions. Police also said the robber drove a white Buick LeSabre.
On Nov. 17, an off-duty policeman who had just learned a bank in the North Hills had been robbed saw a white Buick being driven erratically in the area of the bank, FBI said.
The policeman reported the car’s whereabouts to Ross Township police, who stopped it and arrested Charlier.
“In custody Charlier immediately expressed a determination to cooperate about his involvement in numerous bank robberies,” the FBI said in the complaint.
Charlier got away with $33,822 from the robberies.
He has been held in jail since his arrest.
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