MINNEAPOLIS A prison parolee accused of being the "Man in Black" responsible for 13 credit union and bank robberies in 2011 admitted to the heists yesterday as well as another 18—which he said he committed using a toy gun.
Mark Wetsch, 50, was out on parole from prison when he committed the robberies, which included the 2011 hold-up at United Educators CU in Eden Prairies and two failed heists at Richfield-Bloomington CU in Bloomington in April and November 2011.
Dubbed the Man in Black because he wore a black ski mask and dark clothing during the robberies, Wetsch told authorities he used a toy gun so no one would get hurt.
Wetsch, who lived in Minneapolis, held up institutions in St. Paul, Minneapolis, the suburbs and small outstate towns. His total haul was $116,400.
Wetsch was paroled from federal prison in 2011 where he had been serving as a result of an April 2005 conviction of mail fraud in a case in which he cheated the nursing home company he worked for out of nearly $1.3 million.
Prosecutors said Wetsch used the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle, buying a $500,000 home and fancy cars, taking golf trips to Scotland, vacations in Hawaii and hiring a private coach to travel with his daughter, who was a standout track-and-field athlete in college.
After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to almost four years in prison and ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution.
In May 2011, Wetsch pleaded guilty in state court to violating a court order barring him from having contact with one of his wives. The judge sent Wetsch back to prison for four months. He was to surrender himself to the federal prison at Yankton, S.D., on June 14, 2011. The day before he turned himself in he robbed a bank in Gaylord, S.D. of $6,946.
Wetsch was released from prison Oct. 12, 2011, and resumed his robbery spree 10 days later, according to prosecutors.
