FREDERICK, MD – A 67-year-old Frederick man was arrested and charged with several bank robberies in the metro area earlier this month. The man has a history of robbing banks dating back to the 1970s, police said today.
According to police, Steven Gregory Gass, dubbed the “old man bandit,” has an extensive history of bank robberies, spanning 45 years, and was arrested on Thursday, July 14, 2022, after attempting to rob a Wells Fargo Bank on North Frederick Ave. in Gaithersburg.
The Frederick Police Department released the following information regarding Gass’ multiple robberies:
One of the first banks Gass robbed was in Montgomery County in 1977. In 2010 Gass pleaded guilty to robbing 19 banks between 2008 and 2009 in Florida. He was granted a compassionate release from prison in 2019 for medical reasons and moved back to MD, where he lived with his elderly parents at the time of his most recent arrest.
On July 14, at approximately 9:36 a.m., Montgomery County Police and Gaithersburg City police officers responded to a call for an attempted bank robbery that just occurred at the Wells Fargo Bank on the 600 block of North Frederick Ave.
Officers learned that a White male, wearing a light-colored fisherman’s hat, sunglasses and a large face mask entered the bank and approached a bank teller. The suspect, later identified as Gass, handed the teller a handwritten note, announcing the robbery. The teller walked away, and another bank employee hit the silent alarm. Gass then left the bank without receiving any money.
Montgomery County Police officers observed Gass leaving the area of N. Frederick Ave. in a black two-door Honda Civic, and followed him to a Park and Ride on Rt. 80, near the I-270 exit ramp. Officers approached Gass and arrested him without incident. During the course of the investigation, detectives were able to connect Gass to a June 18 bank robbery on Old Georgetown Rd. in Bethesda.
On Monday, June 18, at approximately 10:34 a.m., Gass entered the Truist Bank on the 10400 block of Old Georgetown Rd, wearing a large fisherman’s hat and blue face mask. He passed a handwritten note to the bank teller announcing the robbery and left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money.
Gass is also accused of robbing a bank in Baltimore County.
On Sunday, July 21, Montgomery and Baltimore County Police served a residential search warrant on Gass’s parents’ home in Frederick. Additional items of evidentiary value were recovered by Baltimore County Police and entered as evidence.
Gass is currently being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit without bond on the two Montgomery County cases, and Baltimore County has obtained an arrest warrant, charging him with one count of robbery.