An aspiring criminal mastermind has been left pondering the perils of learning on the job after an attempted heist revealed some serious planning flaws.
Chicago suspect Edner Flores handed a teller his actual state-issued ID along with a withdrawal slip demanding $10,000 during a botched bank robbery Monday, according to a criminal complaint.
The 34-year-old entered a PNC Bank in the city’s Humboldt Park area wearing a hood and surgical mask and waited in line before passing the teller a deposit ticket with the words “armed” and “no die packs,” federal prosecutors said.
However, the sharp bank worker secretly pressed a silent alarm before asking Flores whether he wanted to make a deposit or a withdrawal.
The teller then passed Flores a blue withdrawal slip, on which the latter wrote “$10,000,” adding “12345689” as his account number before handing it back, according to a photograph in the complaint.
(U.S. Attorney’s Office)
Next, Flores was apparently so stumped by the teller’s follow-up request for authentic ID that he handed over his own temporary state ID card, issued just days earlier by the Illinois Secretary of State.
The ID had Flores’s name, photo, driver’s license number and date of birth, the redacted complaint shows.
The callow crook was still standing in front of the teller when cops responding to the secret alarm arrived to arrest him and discovered a knife in his jacket pocket.
Flores later confessed to the attempted bank robbery during an interview with investigators and confirmed he was the suspect seen on the bank’s surveillance footage, the complaint states.
(U.S. Attorney’s Office)
Court documents did not list an attorney for Flores as of Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
He has been arrested more than a dozen times for alleged crimes including trespassing, driving under the influence and drug offenses, according to CBS Chicago.