‘Sleepover Bandit’ to Rest Behind Bars

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A member of a gang that robbed Palisades FCU of $219,000 while wearing laboratory coats and surgical masks was convicted in federal court last week on charges of attempted bank robbery and conspiracy. Hurgenes Pignard and fur accomplices were part of a gang that planned or committed the credit union robbery and at several others. The gang modeled their robberies after a 2001 movie called ‘Sleepover Bandits,’ about robbers who would arrive at a bank employees house the night before the robbery, take them and their family hostage, and rob the bank the next day. The scheme worked in several robberies. On May 18, 2005, the robbers burst into the Pearl River credit union disguised in surgical outfits and armed with pellet guns, tied up 12 credit union employees and members with plastic ties, then made off with $219,700. The gang was captured a month later when their attempt to rob another bank went awry. At least four other gang members have been sentenced to prison.