Gildardo Lopez Jr. admitted to dressing up as a woman, wearing a burqa and makeup, to disguise his identity as he stole from the LaGrange bank ATM.
A man who worked on ATMs pleaded guilty Thursday to bank larceny for stealing $168,174 in cash from an ATM at a LaGrange bank last August after disguising himself as a woman dressed in a burqa.
Gildardo Lopez Jr., 31, an ATM technician for Garda Cash Logistics at the time, had recently serviced the machine at the Chase Bank branch at 14 S. LaGrange Road and knew it had a lot of cash, according to a plea agreement.
A co-worker had tipped authorities off to Lopez’s plans, so FBI agents at the bank watched as he approached the ATM after midnight and emerged with the cash stuffed in a suitcase.
“In order to conceal his identity, Lopez wore women’s clothing, makeup and a black burqa, covering his face and body,” according to the plea agreement read in court. “Lopez also wore latex gloves to prevent leaving any fingerprints.”
Co-defendant Douglas Pineda was arrested in the getaway van. Pineda worked at Garda as an armored car driver from 2007 to 2010. At the time of the theft, he worked as a Transportation Security Administration airport screener.
Pineda could plead guilty as soon as Friday.
Lopez had instructed Pineda on how to call a dispatcher for the company and access a one-time security code, according to the plea agreement. Lopez essentially wrote a script for Pineda that included a false name, a code for the ATM location and a specific password.
The two communicated with each other using walkie-talkies, according to the plea agreement. They waited until after midnight so the call to the dispatcher would go to a distant office in Portland, Ore., rather than the local office in Illinois.
The co-worker had gone to the FBI after Lopez asked him for an electronic key that would shut off the bank’s alarm system, authorities said. As part of the FBI investigation, the employee then provided the key to Lopez as well as a password to get the combination for the safe from the dispatcher.
Pineda and Lopez had been roommates for about three years, according to the plea agreement.
The two had agreed that after stealing the money, Pineda would drive Lopez from the scene and that Lopez would fly to the Dominican Republic with the stolen cash. Pineda would use his TSA status to sneak the stolen money past airport security before handing it off to Lopez, according to his plea agreement.
Authorities said Lopez devised the scheme because he believed his job at Garda could be in jeopardy. The plea agreement said he worked at the company for nine years.
U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo set sentencing for Sept. 10. Lopez faces up to about three years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, according to his plea agreement.