The Bobster
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nypost.com
He’s no Billy the Kid: Elderly robber allegedly holds up NYC bank — nearly 31 years after last heist
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Published March 30, 2024, 9:19 a.m. ET
A pistol-packing septuagenarian allegedly held up an Upper East Side bank last week — nearly 31 years to the day after his last bank heist.
Authorities said Sherrod Young of Harlem was foiled by modern-day technology in the March 24 robbery, which stunned his family.
“It’s shocking to everybody,” his sister, Sadie Randolph, told The Post. “My brother is 73 years old. It was such a surprise to everyone.”
The ironically named Young — who has four grown children — entered a TD Bank around 12:15 p.m. on 3rd Avenue and East 96th Street, wearing sunglasses and a mask and waving a loaded .45 caliber Ruger pistol and demanded cash, authorities said.
4 Young of Harlem was foiled by modern-day technology, authorities said. FBI
“Be quiet,” he told a security guard and teller while pointing the gun at them, according to a federal criminal complaint. “Don’t move! Give me all of the money! Big bills!’’
The teller handed over $1,300 — along with a hidden GPS tracker inside the bag.
Cops used the chip to locate him and arrest him — about a mile from the bank at East 115th Street and Fifth Avenue in Harlem, as he got back into his red Mercedes Benz C43 sedan about 15 minutes after the robbery, the complaint states.
He had the mask in his pocket, and the money and the gun were found in his car, the complaint alleges.
“He’s not a criminal mastermind,” one police source quipped.
Young’s last bank job was at a Bronx bank on St. Patrick’s Day 1994, the FBI said, without providing specifics.
He pleaded guilty to 15 counts of bank robbery and was sentenced to 18 months to three years in prison, the complaint states.
4 Young is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. FBI
4 Young was seen on surveillance video in the area of the bank, FBI
Young reformed his ways and turned his life around since that time, his sister said.
“He said that would never happen [again], because I know he loves his kids,” Randolph, 67, said.
“He started going to church and everything,” she added.
But recently the family observed strange behavior by the Harlem man, and that he “was very stressed.”
One of her cousins told Randolph that her brother had been “talking crazy” at a party and “needed to see a doctor,” while the sister noticed as recently as two or three months ago that his speech seemed off.
“The way he talked and stuff, like he just wasn’t Sherrod,” she said. “I don’t know who that person was. That’s not the Sherrod that I know
4 Young was caught on surveillance entering the bank, wearing the mask. FBI
Randolph said Young retired from working as a security guard and was receiving Social Security, and speculated the recent heist could have been a way to pay medical bills since he had problems with his heart and vision.
“He just came out of the hospital not too long ago, with all kinds of tubes in him. He’s not well,” she said,
Young is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.