December 10, 2006


Chase Bank at 933 Madison in Oak Park...Robbed for $200,000.00
©  photo by Suburban Journals of Chicago

Chase JPMorgan Bank Robbed of $200,000.00 Cash.
by Ed Vincent for Suburban Journals of Chicago

Chase JPMorgan Bank in Oak  Park, located at 933 Madison was robbed last Thursday on the 7th of December.  It is believed that someone had been waiting for the Branch Manager to appear
before opening hours.  A man was reported to have been by the ATM when the manager entered through the same door.  The
man at the ATM then pulled a ski mask over his face and forced
the manager into the bank.  Showing a gun to the Manager the robber made him open a safe on the premises and remove over $200,000.00 in cash.

Chase Bank at 933 Madison
©  photo by Suburban Journals of Chicago

Many bank robberies yield far less, often only one or two thousand. In the past funds would often have been supplied with exploding packets of dye or there would have been armed guards to prevent these robberies.  Off duty, or retired Police are now mostly a thing
of the past, many removed because of the threat for more violence
if resistance is offered to a robber.  Insurance companies find the potential and actual loss of funds less than the potential loss from injury to patron claims.  Oak Park does have a few banks on the
east side of town that still have armed guards in them.

Oak Park Police have kept quiet about the amount of funds
reported taken.  The FBI is taking over the investigation and
the Village of Oak Park will only admit to the robbery and no
official word of the amount.  Calls to Chase were not answered
by the public relations people at the time of this report.

Some feel that there might have been a person on the inside
helping the robber, or at least giving information as to when
the time might be right for a large cache of funds.  The robber
will probably have a clean shot at spending the unmarked funds.

It would appear that to prevent this type of robbery from
happening in the future an armed escort should accompany all
managers to these more remote locations of banking.

If you know of anything that could help in this case please
call the police at 386-3800.