CHICAGO — The man who robbed a Wicker Park bank this week tried to convince FBI agents that they had the wrong man and that the real culprit was his twin brother. Pressed for details, Andrew Crayton allegedly told the agents that his family refuses to talk about his twin, also named Andrew Crayton, who wears the same clothes as him.
Crayton—the one the FBI arrested, not the mysterious twin—was charged with bank robbery anyway. Coincidentally, he is also on bail for a pending robbery case in Chicago.
Minutes after Belmont Bank and Trust, 1958 West Division, opened on Tuesday, a man walked in wearing a distinctive jacket and displayed a firearm at a teller window. But the teller’s drawer had not been stocked with cash yet, and the robber became agitated, an FBI agent wrote in a federal complaint against the 28-year-old.
“I’m robbing you. Give me everything,” the robber announced before threatening to jump over the counter and shoot a teller in the head, according to the agent.
They handed the robber cash and a teller drawer tray for a total of about $6,068. Surveillance cameras recorded the robber walking down the street with a cash drawer in his hand.
Unbeknownst to the robber, the cash also contained a tracking device, and cops quickly zeroed in on a Volkswagen. Crayton, the FBI agent alleged, was in the car’s front passenger seat, and his girlfriend was driving. She told police that Crayton asked her to pick him up in the 1900 block of West Crystal that morning because he needed a ride to buy a new car, the affidavit said. Upon entering her vehicle, Crayton stuffed a large amount of cash into the glove compartment and locked it.
According to the FBI agent’s affidavit, cops found the bank tracker, a jean jacket matching the one the bank robber wore, four phones, and $3,274 in cash in the woman’s Volkswagen.
At the FBI Chicago field office, Crayton claimed his twin brother arrived at his grandmother’s house in the 1900 block of West Crystal and told him he had “done something,” the FBI agent wrote.
“Crayton claimed that Crayton and Crayton’s twin brother had the exact same clothes and looked exactly the same in appearance,” the FBI agent wrote. “Crayton eventually claimed his twin brother had the exact same name as Crayton. Crayton stated that his family would not talk about his twin brother. Near the end of the interview, Crayton stated he had not told the whole truth about his story but did not elaborate further.”
“FBI agents ran a search through law enforcement databases and could not find an individual born on the same day as Crayton with his last name,” the agent concluded.
Crayton was on bail at the time of the bank robbery for allegedly robbing a rideshare driver on the West Side in April 2021.
In that case, prosecutors say he and a companion ordered a Lyft to take them to Gurnee. After getting in the car, the men asked the driver to take them to Milwaukee. He refused and pulled over.
Crayton and his companion got out of the car, and Crayton punched the driver through the driver’s window and took his phone, prosecutors alleged. Crayton’s companion, also charged with robbery, allegedly punched the driver after climbing into the front passenger seat.