SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – A former educator who spent time in prison for a 1990's series of bank robberies in the Midwest is being sought for a new series of hold-ups in the northwest, including last month’s heist at Redwood CU here.
Police have identified the robber, once known as the Zombie bandit, from surveillance videos taken at recent hold-ups from Palo Alto to Oregon. Sixty-two-year-old Alan Hurwitz, a one-time teacher and advisor on school violence, got his name from his mumbling and blank stare and the wounded limp he employed during his robberies.
Hurwitz, who robbed as many as 18 banks and credit unions in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio in the early 1990's, served 12 years in prison before being released in May 2004. At the time of his conviction he told authorities he robbed banks and credit unions to pay for his crack cocaine habit.
