Remorseful Robber Returns Dunkin' Dough
Dunkin' Donuts gets $167 back
By BJ LUTZ and TARA GRIMES
Updated 12:28 PM CST, Tue, Jul 28, 2009
A suburban Chicago teen with a guilty conscience says he's sorry.
Alex Holmes, 17, robbed a Dunkin' Donuts in Hinsdale, Ill., at gunpoint and later returned to the store to give back the $167 he stole, police said.
"I gotta take this money back," Holmes, 18, told WGN-TV in an interview. "This is not the way God wants me to do my thing. ... I had the money in my hand and I can't look at it."
A surveillance camera inside the store captured the robbery and Holmes' return, when he tried to hug the clerk he'd held up. She refused.
Holmes used a BB gun that looked like the real thing during the robbery at about 3 a.m. Tuesday. About 24 hours later, he returned to the store, apologized to the clerk and gave the money back, said Assistant DuPage County State's Atty. Brooks Locke.
When he realized the clerk did not speak English, he wrote a note that said he was sorry and shouldn't have taken the money.
"I couldn"t stop imagining that lady," Holmes told WGN. "She was crying and I don't like to see people sad. She was scared for her life."
On Wednesday, police saw Holmes, wearing the same clothes, on a bicycle in the village and arrested him. The BB gun was found in his parent's home, Locke said.
Judge Peter Ostling set Holmes' bond at $75,000 after the incident.
Holmes was charged with aggravated robbery, but avoided prison on July 20 when he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. He had originally faced up to 15 years in prison with his original charge. The reduced sentence carried a maximum of seven years, but he was placed on two years' probation.
He was credited with the 42 days he served in the DuPage County Jail following his arrest.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Chicago
First Published: Apr 9, 2009 4:23 PM CST
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