'Career Offender' Charged In Bank Robberies At Howard Street, Irving Park Road Jewel-Oscos
CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors charged a Chicago man with robbing a bank on Howard Street and attempting to rob another on Irving Park Road while on court-supervised release for a previous bank robbery conviction.
Both targeted bank branches — a Huntington Bank and an Associated Bank — are located inside Jewel-Osco grocery stores.
Jeffrey Sulaski, 64, has managed to rob at least 17 banks since 2000, though he has spent about 20 years of that time in prison, according to court filings.
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Sulaski served about eight years in federal prison for a string of robberies following a conviction in Ohio.
He then absconded from supervised release in 2011 and fled to Chicago, where he robbed three TCF Bank branches in Jewel-Oscos, one of them twice.
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Sulaski also tried to extort $65,000 from a Chase Bank in Lincoln Park by calling up a bank manager and threatening the manager and other bank employees, according to court filings.
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U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman sentenced Sulaski to more than 12 and a half years for the 2011 robberies, the low end of the sentencing guidelines for a “career offender.”
In September 2023, authorities issued a warrant for his arrest after his probation officer reported he violated the conditions of his supervised release.
Then, around 5 p.m. on Aug. 2, Sulaski tried to rob the Huntington Bank at 6430 W. Irving Park Road.
And around 11:45 a.m. the following day, Aug. 3, Sulaski successfully robbed the Associated Bank at 1763 W. Howard Ave., in Chicago. In both cases, he wore a blue bucket hat.
Sulaski was an active duty member of the military, and later in the reserves, “in order words pretty much of a model citizen,” until he began suffering from an out-of-control addiction that runs in his family, according to a sentencing memo from Steven Saltzman, his defense attorney in his previous case.
“When he got hooked by his gambling addiction, that led to a feeling of desperation, which led to the bank extortion and robberies in this case and in his earlier case,” Saltzman argued.
Sulaski is due to be arraigned on the new new charges Thursday before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago.
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