Woman accused of bringing 5-year-old son on bank heist
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter/fmain@suntimes.com
State child welfare officials said Saturday they are investigating a report that a Lake County woman brought her 5-year-old son with her while she accompanied her boyfriend on a bank robbery.
Lauri L. Ruble, of Antioch, and Brandon Stancliff have been charged in federal court with robbing Wauconda Community Bank in Island Lake on Dec. 29. Ruble was ordered released on $5,000 bail Thursday.
Ruble allegedly told the FBI she was upset with herself for putting her son in danger. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is investigating allegations of abuse and neglect against the couple, a spokesman said.
The spokesman said he could not comment on the boy’s status.
Ruble allegedly told the FBI that Stancliff grabbed a bandana and butcher knife from her kitchen and they both left her home with her son to rob the bank. She put her son in a car seat and they drove to the bank, she said.
Ruble went into the bank asking whether there was a change-counting machine — a ruse to learn how many tellers were there, according to an FBI affidavit. Stancliff then went into the bank with the orange bandana covering his tattooed face, authorities said. He allegedly displayed the knife, demanded money and fled with $4,800. An informant seeking a reward identified Ruble and Stancliff as the suspects, the FBI said. They were arrested Dec. 30.
It wasn’t the first time a woman allegedly brought a child with her to a robbery in the Chicago area. In 2007, Lyndsey Tucker was charged with robbing a Lake in the Hills bank with a knife while her 4-year-old daughter sat in the SUV she was driving. Tucker was sentenced to 53 months in prison.
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