Vader mask-wearing robber sentenced

A 60-year-old Wilkinsburg man who robbed the same bank twice, hit another bank while wearing a dress and robbed a convenience store in a Darth Vader mask is headed to federal prison for more than a dozen years.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Friday imposed a term of 151 months — a little over 12½ years — on Glenn Ford.

Ford is a repeat felon who has spent most of his life committing crimes, mostly theft-related.

His latest spree began Sept. 15, 2017, when he robbed a Huntington Bank in Downtown while wearing a wig and a sticker on his face in an attempt to conceal his identity.

The teller gave him $2,340 and he ran, discarding his coat a few blocks away.

He next robbed a Citizens Bank on the South Side on Sept. 20, this time wearing a hat, a dress and a trenchcoat. Again, he discarded the clothing nearby afterward.

An off-duty security guard from a nearby business spotted him and took a photo of him as they both got on a bus. Ford had thrown away his outer clothing but was sweating “profusely,” federal prosecutors said.

On Sept. 28, Ford returned to the same Downtown Huntington Bank and robbed it again. This time he tried to hide his face using a McDonald’s cup. But a teller recognized him from the first robbery and put a dye pack in the money. It exploded as he ran away.

Finally on Oct. 4, Ford robbed a CoGo’s convenience store on East Carson Street with a knife while wearing a Darth Vader mask. He took $186 from the register.

He was arrested a few days later and confessed to all the robberies, saying he had washed the dye-stained money from the second Huntington Bank robbery in a washing machine.

Ford used some of the money that couldn’t be cleaned in cash machines, he said, and discarded the rest.

He pleaded guilty in March to four counts of robbery.