Hubris Leads To Heist Arrest

By Sam Bakken in News on Feb 23, 2005 9:50PM

We wanted to keep today's post warm and fuzzy, but then we stumbled upon a story about Randy Washington.

According to the FBI, on Sept. 24 a couple of disc jockeys at Chicago radio station KISS-103.5 asked listeners to call in and tell stories about crimes they'd committed without being caught. A man called in and told the story of a bank he and five others robbed with assistance from one of the bank's employees. The man identified himself as "D" and said that he and his accomplices had spent some of the proceeds from the heist on Louis Vuitton leather goods.

A TCF in South Chicago Heights had been sacked for $81,000 in April and the case remained unsolved. Either a federal agent or a TCF bank employee was listening to the radio on their way to work and heard the call. The feds got ahold of the radio station's calling records and allegedly traced the call to Washington's phone. They also allegedly found records of Washington paying $240 in cash for a wallet at the Louis Vuitton store on Michigan Ave. That's just too much money to spend on a money holder.

In October, Washington allegedly told them he went by the name "D" and that he called into the station with the story. But authorities say he said he heard about the robbery from some of his friends and that he was not involved. The feds allege that shortly after the October interview Washington called one of his accomplices, William Slate. Authorities discovered that both men, and other suspects, had at one time lived in the same apartment complex in Steger. Federal agents say Slate's roommates said he had bragged to them about receiving $15,000 from the heist. At one point investigators wired one the roommates with a recording device and allegedly recorded Slate admitting to receiving $13,000 from the robbery.

Slate and Washington were arrested on Feb. 16 in connection with the robbery. If this all turns out to be true, Washington is quite a dipsh...well, we won't say it.