A career criminal walked out of the federal correctional center in downtown Chicago last week after serving a 96-month term for bank robbery and robbed another bank that very afternoon, prosecutors say. Major McCoy, 42, allegedly admitted to robbing the PNC Bank, 1231 North Wells Street, during an FBI interview, adding that he lost $150 of the bank’s cash before police arrested him when a crack dealer ripped him off.
Back in January 2019, Chicago police arrested McCoy as he climbed into a taxi after robbing the Chase Bank at 230 West Grand in River North.
Two bank tellers told investigators that McCoy handed them a note that said something to the effect of “I have a bomb and gun. 20,000. Big bills.” An FBI agent stated in a criminal complaint that arresting officers found large bundles of cash totaling about $9,300 in the leg of McCoy’s sweatpants.
He was suspected of robbing two other banks within days of that holdup and eventually received a 96-month prison sentence.
Last Wednesday, April 1, McCoy walked out of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago — and he robbed another bank that afternoon, prosecutors say.
At approximately 1:24 p.m., a man entered the PNC Bank in Old Town and handed the teller a note: “Get me all the money bills only or I will blow this Bitch NO ink pack or G.P.S.”
The teller unlocked a drawer and handed over five $50 bills in “bait money,” cash bearing recorded serial numbers that banks keep set aside for robberies, according to the complaint. The robber walked out of the bank and broke into a run once he hit the sidewalk, according to the complaint.
A Chicago Police Department officer used the city’s network of surveillance cameras to track the suspect and relay a description to patrol units. About 20 minutes after the robbery, a CPD sergeant spotted McCoy matching that description and arrested him in the 100 block of West Wendell Street after a 10-second foot pursuit, according to the complaint.
During a pat-down, the sergeant allegedly recovered two $50 bills along with the handwritten bank robbery note from McCoy’s pants. Serial numbers on the bills matched two of the bait bills from the bank’s teller drawer, the complaint states.
McCoy later told FBI agents that immediately after the robbery, he tried to buy crack cocaine from a man on the street. He said he handed over three of the $50 bills, but the man never provided the crack, according to the complaint.
State records show that McCoy was released from prison on parole in March 2017 after serving half of a six-year sentence for burglary. Before that, he received an 18-month sentence for shoplifting in 2013; six years for armed robbery in 2008; four years for robbery in 2006; and one year for theft in 2006.
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