Trackdown: The Navigation Bandit captured
UPDATE 4/19/18: After FOX 4 featured a high-profile bank robber, viewer tips help put the ‘Navigation Bandit’ in federal custody. Tips identified him as Kenneth Anthony Crespo. Agents compared photos from the bank robberies to Crespo’s Facebook photo and compiled a photo lineup. A bank teller was able to pick Crespo out of the lineup. Records show Crespo is a registered sex offender in Texas and convicted of a sex offense in Florida.
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The Dallas FBI needs your help to track down a man they call the ‘Navigation Bandit.’
He’s believed to be behind seven bank robberies since February 7. He's not used a gun or even shown one, but he’s threatened to. The FBI takes the threat as serious as they do the heist.
The FBI calls him the Navigation Bandit because all of his targets have been BBVA Compass Banks in Dallas, Garland and Plano. He’s a Hispanic man in his 20s. Agents believe he weighs 160-180 lbs with a neatly trimmed beard. He doesn’t bother covering his face and only wears either a winter cap or a baseball-style cap.
The first bank he hit was the Compass Bank at 9090 Skillman in Dallas. The last one was on March 21.
“He's quick. He comes into the bank. He presents a note to the teller, usually goes right up to the teller station,” explained Dallas FBI Special Agent Ted Grant. “He presents a note which threatens a gun and threatens violence and asks for U.S. currency. A teller complies with their training, gives him money, and then he departs the bank.”
Grant says the Navigation Bandit has quickly changed in between heists.
“After hitting this Compass Bank February 21st, here's what he did: changed clothes and went into the Walmart about a block from here. He was caught on video calmly walking down the street, holding a conversation when a guy,” the special agent explained. “In fact, to conceal his identity from law enforcement, immediately after the robberies we've seen him change clothes.”
On March 7, feds say he held up a Compass Bank in Casa Linda on North Buckner. The very next day, he hit another one in Downtown Garland.
The last bank he hit was on March 21 at the Compass Bank location on 5445 North Garland Avenue in Garland. Grant says the last one was different because he was caught on video in a blue Avalanche.
“At this point, we're asking for the public's assistance in locating him,” Grant said. “He's got a friend out there. A neighbor, a co-worker, someone knows who he is. And we're asking for the public's assistance in finding him.”
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest. Anyone with info is urged to call the Dallas FBI at (972)559-5000.