Back-Out Bandit Gets 4 Years For Aborted Bank Job

A Harvey man who wore a mask into a Frankfort bank but changed his mind at the last minute about robbing it was still sent off to serve a four-year prison term.

Before she handed down her sentence, Will County Judge Carla Alessio Policandriotes called 53-year-old David Dabbs’ robbery disguise a “godawful mask.”

One observer said the mask resembled the head of the character Cleveland Orenthal Brown from the Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.

Judge Alessio Policandriotes also took Dabbs to task for robbing a bank while he was receiving $740 a month in government assistance “for some sort of disability,” as well as getting free food and medical care.

Alessio Policandriotes said Dabbs “uses that money to buy narcotics on the street” and told how he had been turned out of his mother’s home.

In November 2014, Dabbs went into the Chase bank on LaGrange Road near Colorado Avenue but left again before actually robbing it. Dabbs’ attorney, Stephen Whitmore, said Dabbs never even approached a teller. Dabbs was still charged with burglary for entering the bank with the intent to commit a theft.

Dabbs pleaded guilty in July. He asked for probation. Alessio Policandriotes called the request “unconscionable.”