'Hand Over $30,000 Dollars Now!! All Hundreds,' How Joliet Police Solved BMO Bank Robbery

JOLIET, IL — The downtown Joliet bank robber who struck the BMO Bank at 78 N. Chicago St. demanded that the teller give him $30,000, and when she gave him only $2,700 instead, Joliet resident Benito Delgado told her "that was fine," according to newly filed court records at the Will County Courthouse.

This week, the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow presented its petition to deny pretrial release for Delgado under the SAFE-T-Act. Will County Judge Derek Ewanic agreed with the prosecution and ordered the Joliet resident to remain at the Will County Jail for an indefinite period of time while awaiting his trial.

This marks the fourth time in his life that the 35-year-old Joliet citizen finds himself in the Will County Jail, but it's Delgado's first bank robbery arrest in Joliet, according to court files.

At 1:45 p.m. Monday, Delgado entered the BMO Bank in downtown Joliet, and the bank teller saw him waiting in line, so she asked him to approach her counter to assist him, prosecutors said. He approached her and slid her a handwritten note written in yellow highlighters that read, "Hand over $30,000 DOLLARS Now!! All Hundreds," the prosecution revealed.

The bank teller reached into her drawer and grabbed her $100 bills, counting them out loud in front of Delgado, for a total of $2,700, court files reflect. "She asked defendant is that was good, and defendant said that was fine."

Delgado grabbed the money, exited and got into his white Ford Taurus with a sunroof and drove northbound along the one-way Scott Street, Joliet police determined.

Police say they also obtained video surveillance cameras that showed Delgado's car travel from his address in the 300 block of North Bluff Street, southbound through the parking lot at the Bicentennial Park, over the Jefferson Street Bridge and then the parking lot for the BMO Bank in downtown Joliet.

Delgado only lives 1.1 miles from the location of the bank he robbed, prosecutors said. He returned to his apartment at 311 N. Bluff Street at the Riverwalk Apartment Complex after the bank robbery, and video cameras showed Delgado's car leave the apartment complex at 1:40 p.m. and return at 1:55 p.m., 10 minutes after the robbery, court records indicate.

The bank teller later viewed a six-person police photo lineup, and she believed person No. 4, which was Delgado, was the culprit, court documents note. The next day, on Tuesday, Delgado was picked up in Kendall County on a driving under the influence charge and put into the Kendall County Jail.

Joliet police interviewed Delgado, and he was notified he was being charged for the BMO Bank robbery, and the detectives wanted an explanation for why he committed the crime.

Delgado told the police that he "needed the money to repair his vehicle and said something to the effect the universe owed him money," the petition outlined. "He said officers could locate the highlighter used to write the robbery note, more cash, about $2,000, and the black sweatshirt worn during the robbery in his vehicle located at Kendall County's impound lot ... (An) officer tried to get prints from the bank counter but was unable to lift any. There were numerous overlaid prints, but no individual prints."

On Thursday, Ewanic announced he was denying pretrial release for Delgado, citing the nature and circumstances of the crime and that prosecutors had met the willful flight standard, by outlining in two pages of additional court documents a long list of previous cases where Delgado failed to show up in court for his various criminal charges.