Fairfax County police this week charged an Adult Detention Center inmate with robbing four banks in the past two months.
Detectives served warrants on Tuesday to Eric Thomas Kjellson, 44, of Annandale, who was incarcerated on unrelated charges, according to Fairfax County Police Department spokeswoman Camille Neville.
Kjellson is accused of a string of robberies across the county in May and June. He allegedly entered the first two banks — an Annandale United Bank branch on Woodburn Road on May 2 and a BB&T on Waples Mill Road near Fairfax on May 8 — announced he had a bomb and left with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Police say he also robbed a Cardinal Bank on Sullyfield Circle in Chantilly on June 14 and a Bank of America branch on Columbia Pike in Annandale the following day.
The crimes are part of an unusual spike in bank heists in Fairfax County in the past year and a half. The rate more than doubled from 2005 to 2006, a year that saw 43 bank robberies. The trend is showing no signs of abating with 24 robberies in 2007. Of those, 15 have been closed with arrests, according to Neville.
“Frequently we have more robberies than we do suspects,” she said. “One suspect may be responsible for two or three different robberies. That’s not uncommon.”
