News and notes from Reston (tm).

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

We're Back, and the Only Thing That Supposedly Happened Is Literally Five Months Old

121008bbtherndonrobbery3.jpgWe're back, after a brief scare when the DRB officials manning the checkpoint at Lawyers Road caught us returning to Reston with a series of brightly colored paint swatches in our luggage. So what was the biggest news in Reston in our absence? Something that happened nearly five months ago: our pal, the athletic, desk-vaulting, hoodie-wearing bank robber:

Fairfax County police and the FBI are still searching for a serial bank robber known for wearing a hooded sweatshirt and vaulting teller counters.

Police believe the Hoodie Bandit is responsible for eight robberies since November: six in Reston, one in Chantilly and one in Fairfax. His targets are most often BB&T Banks, and he comes armed with a handgun.

His last known robbery was in March, when he jumped a teller counter at the United Bank at 13060 Fair Lakes Blvd. in Fairfax, police said. At the time, authorities said they were concerned the suspect was acting more aggressively... In previous robberies, he took less time and acted with less aggression toward bank employees, authorities said.
He also apparently got a little more organized. So why is the Examiner writing about this now? Has the Hoodie Bandit put his sweatshirt back on and hit the banks again? Not exactly.
But just as law enforcement officials worried the robberies would get violently out of hand, they appear to have stopped. The Hoodie Bandit hasn't been seen since his last robbery. At that time, media outlets began reporting about the series of robberies after a story in The Examiner.
And the filthy "web logs" were talking about them from day one.

080309wodtrailsexasltcomposite.jpgMeanwhile, maybe the police and media should be paying more attention to this guy, who's suspected in two indecent exposure cases along the W&OD trail in Reston, and a third, more troubling incident in Vienna, over the past few weeks.
Three women have been assaulted on the W&OD Trail in the Vienna and Reston areas in recent weeks, and police in Fairfax County and Vienna are looking into whether the same man might be responsible for the incidents.

The first attack occurred July 15, when a 25-year-old woman reported that she was approached by a man on a bicycle about 2 p.m. as she was running near Ayr Hill Avenue in Vienna. Police said the man exposed himself, threw the woman to the ground and positioned himself over her. The woman broke free and ran for help.

The second and third incidents happened over a span of about 15 minutes in the Reston area Thursday. A woman walking on the trail west of Hunter Mill Road said a man approached on a bicycle, exposed himself and pedaled away. About 10 minutes later, two women walking near mile marker 13, west of the Vienna town limits, reported that a man exposed himself and grabbed one woman by the arm. She screamed and the man fled.

The assailant in all three incidents is described as about 40 years old, cleanshaven and tan, with no shirt, black shorts and a cyclist-type hat. The Fairfax victims said the man was about 5-foot-7 and 200 pounds, with "a large belly." Anyone with information about the attacker is asked to call 866-411-8477.
There's also a composite sketch of the bicycle at the first link, which shockingly resembles a bicycle:

080309wodbike.jpg

If you know someone who rides something like this, he (or she) is obviously the guilty party. PANIC.

5 comments:

  1. Whatever happened to the good old days when you would just moon people from your car?

    (_)*(_)

    ReplyDelete
  2. From the Uplands of RestonAugust 4, 2009 at 9:39 PM

    Welcome back.
    It's quiet. Too quiet. What's a filthy web-blogger to do?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Could we say this story is about the hood in the hoodie from the 'hood?

    ReplyDelete
  4. its a little too hot for a hoodie right now

    ReplyDelete
  5. Police say the thief or thieves has been breaking in during the day while the residents are away in the Reston, Sully, McLean and Fair Oaks sections of the county. In each case, the burglar has been going after very specific items.

    One of the burglaries took place on June 24 in a Reston neighborhood just off of Towlston Road, not far from Leesburg Pike. Investigators now believe they can link 16 crimes in which the burglar or burglars have been targeting homes in which religious symbols have been prominently displayed.

    Fairfax County Police say the homes favored by the burglar or burglars are in neighborhoods heavily populated by people of Middle Eastern or Asian descent. They say they've been looking for homes with religious symbols.

    "It's a Hindu symbol, I believe it's called a Ganesh—I hope I am saying it right," said Officer Tawny Wright of the Fairfax County Police Department. "But they hang it, some of them hang it above their garages or in a window, next to their doors, and like I said, and of the 16, a significant number have had this symbol displayed around their house."

    http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/080709_fairfax_co_burglaries_linked_to_ethnic_symbol

    ReplyDelete

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