Melanie, a Cook County Sheriff’s Department bloodhound. (Cook County Sheriff’s Dept.)
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MAINE TOWNSHIP, Ill. (STMW) — A Cook County bloodhound helped sheriff’s police find a man suspected of robbing a bank Monday afternoon near north suburban Glenview.
Police responded about 12:10 p.m. to a robbery at the Glenview State Bank in the 2600 block of North Golf Road in Maine Township, Cook County Sheriff’s office spokesman Frank Bilecki said.
The robber entered the bank, approached the teller, implied he had a weapon and provided a bag to be filled with money, Bilecki said. He never actually displayed a weapon.
Sheriff’s police conducted a door-to-door search, while a helicopter searched from the air and Melanie the bloodhound searched on the ground, Bilecki said.
Melanie tracked the robber’s scent to an apartment complex about a block-and-a-half north of the bank, Bilecki said.
“She put her paws up on the door to the apartment complex,” Bilecki said. “She proceeded to go down a long hallway and put her paws up again on another door.”
Melanie then went up a flight of stairs, down a short hallway and put her paws on an apartment door, Bilecki said. Sheriff’s police knocked on the door and talked to a man inside, who identified the suspect in a surveillance photo as his roommate.
This surveillance image is of a bank robbery suspect who took money from the Glenview State Bank on Monday. (FBI)
Police found a hat and sunglasses allegedly used in the robbery in plain sight, Bilecki said. The man said his roommate, who moved in less than a week ago, was not home, but at the same time other deputies conducting the door-to-door search captured him in a vehicle outside the building.
The suspect was taken into custody, Bilecki said. His roommate and a woman in the vehicle at the time of the arrest were being questioned.
Four-year-old Melanie has helped capture 20 to 30 suspects – including an escaped inmate in a portable toilet in Lockport last year, and burglary suspect hiding in a crawlspace last month.
“She is a fantastic bloodhound,” Bilecki said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
