United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

PAMELA KAICHEN SENTENCED TO 4 YEARS FOR BANK ROBBERY

Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns sentenced PAMELA KAICHEN, age 44, of Bedford Hills, New York, to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for robbing six banks on May 21 and 22, 2003. Judge Burns, sitting in New Haven, sentenced KAICHEN to 48 months on each of the six bank robbery counts, to be served concurrently. Judge Burns also ordered KAICHEN to make full restitution to the banks and to undergo a mental health treatment program while in prison, and to continue in a mental health treatment program upon her release.

KAICHEN, who volunteered once a week at the Salvation Army site at Ground Zero following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, went on a two-day bank robbery spree across New York and Connecticut in May 2003, during which she robbed six banks, purportedly for the benefit of September 11th victims and charities. During the course of the robberies, KAICHEN wore, among other things, an ill-fitted cap, a yellow raincoat, and a blond wig.

According to court documents, KAICHEN stole over $42,000 in cash during her two-day spree from the following banks: The Bank of New York in Shrub Oak, New York; the HSBC Bank in Scarsdale, New York; the People's Bank in Newtown, Connecticut; the First Union Bank in Danbury, Connecticut; the Union Savings Bank in Brookfield, Connecticut and the Fleet Bank in Danbury, Connecticut. Investigators recovered all of the cash that KAICHEN stole during a search of KAICHEN's apartment.

KAICHEN was identified as the robber in large part because a Danbury Police Officer issued her a ticket for failing to wear a seatbelt on the morning of May 22, 2003. The officer later saw a bank surveillance photo on the television news that evening and recognized KAICHEN as the same person to whom he had issued the ticket earlier that day.

During court proceedings, the Government explained that during the course of the robberies, KAICHEN made consistent and repeated threats to numerous victim bank tellers, and often evoked the September 11th tragedy. Specifically, the prosecutor explained that KAICHEN repeatedly demanded that tellers place their cash into a pillowcase, told the tellers that she had personally lost a loved one on September 11th, that she was angry and ready to "lose it," claimed that she had a gun in her pocket and that she had nothing to lose. After the pillowcase was returned to her, KAICHEN instructed tellers to wait five minutes before doing anything, telling them that she would be outside in the parking lot and, if she saw any activity or saw any police, she would start shooting. Although there was no evidence that a weapon was actually used, KAICHEN made gestures to the victim bank tellers suggesting to them that she did, in fact, have a gun.

In the course of court proceedings, the Government also explained that the evidence against KAICHEN included the testimony of several law enforcement officers; the testimony of several eye-witnesses including victim tellers, bank employees and bank customers; several bank surveillance videos and photographs; "bait money," or bills from certain of the banks for which serial numbers were recorded; identifications made from certain photo arrays; and KAICHEN's confession. The Government's evidence also included the results of the searches of KAICHEN's apartment and one of the rental cars used by KAICHEN that produced the yellow rain coat, the blond wig, the baseball cap, the pillowcase that KAICHEN used during the robberies, the Danbury traffic ticket that KAICHEN received on the morning of the second day of the robberies, and over $42,000 in cash seized from the search of the defendant's residence.

"Too often, bank robbers and bank robberies are romanticized in the media," U.S. Attorney O'Connor stated. "What is sometimes lost is that a bank robbery is never a victimless crime. Bank employees and bank customers who witness a robbery experience real threat of harm. A victim of robbery has little time or inclination to care about a bank robber's motivation or mental condition."

"There has been a recent rise in the number of bank robberies," U.S. Attorney O'Connor added. "However, this Office will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute these cases to the fullest extent. If you rob a bank in Connecticut, you will get caught, and you will spend time in prison."

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Bridgeport, Connecticut and White Plains, New York; in conjunction with members of the Yorktown, New York; Scarsdale, New York; Newtown, Connecticut; Danbury, Connecticut; and Brookfield, Connecticut Police Departments. Assistant United States Attorney Stephen B. Reynolds of the United States Attorney's Office in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Assistant United States Attorney Elliott B. Jacobson of the United States Attorney's Office in White Plains, New York prosecuted the case.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov