NEEDHAM, Mass. – Two men arrested yesterday after they tried to rob a local may be the so-called U30 bandits who have been involved in as many as eight robberies–including last week’s at Sharon CU– in 30 seconds or less.
The two were captured as they tried to hold-up Sovereign Bank, one as he was leaving the bank, the other as he fled in the getaway car.
The FBI said the U30 Bandits robbed the Sharon CU branch in nearby Walpole at gunpoint last Tuesday, with the robber wearing a Red Sox cap, a mask and a wig of long dreadlocks.
The robber terrorized credit union tellers by pointing what appeared to be a semiautomatic handgun at employee's heads and, at one point, jumping up onto the bank counter in a move evocative of John Dillinger, who is supposed to have boasted, according to a new movie, that he could knock off a bank in 1 minute and 40 seconds.
The U30 bandit always wears a black face covering and a baseball cap and has been known to wield fake explosives during holdups and has called in bomb threats to local police departments as a way to divert officers to other locations. Neither strategy was used in the credit union heist.
