LITTLE ROCK (AP) – A brazen bank robber with nothing but a baseball cap and dark sunglasses hiding his face is one of the latest members of the social-networking Web site MySpace, and he wants to meet “more bank tellers so that I can continue my crime spree!!!”
Even though MySpace is popular with teenagers, Fort Smith police Sgt. Jarrard Copeland created the profile Friday hoping someone will recognize the man estimated to be about 60 and suspected in four bank robberies across Arkansas.
“We figure that might be one way to get this photo outside of the market,” he said.
Amid a backdrop of $100 bills and a song “Citizens on Patrol” from the movie “Police Academy,” the profile displays several photos from a Feb. 22 robbery at a U.S. Bank branch in Alma in which the suspect wore a blue jacket with “FBI” letting on the left front and a blue ball cap.
“The pictures are definitely clear enough and there’s enough of his face and facial features exposed that someone who knows him will definitely recognize him and hopefully they’ll call police,” Copeland said.
The photo gallery shows a series of bank security camera photographs, including comic captions like “Here I am robbing the Van Buren bank. See my little gun?” and “I’m robbing the bank in Fort Smith here…. I’m so cool!!!”
Copeland said he didn’t go out of his ways to ridicule the robber.
“I’m not concerned about taunting him,” he said. “If it can get him flustered and it can cause him to slip up and make a mistake, it might help us apprehend him.”
Steve Frazier, an FBI spokesman based in Little Rock, said his agency “didn’t have a problem” with the MySpace effort, though they would stick with their traditional bulletins to the media. Frazier said agents met with the state police and local police departments this week to discuss leads on the case.
“We’re working it pretty strong,” Frazier said. “Whenever they commit multiple bank robberies, we throw a lot of resources at it.
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On the Net:
MySpace page: www.myspace.com/bankrobber2007
Fort Smith, Ark., Police Department: http://www.fortsmithpd.org/
AP-ES-03-02-07 2055EST
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