A once unidentified man with the monikers “Cyborg bandit” and “Elephant man” has been caught, charged and identified after a year-long investigation.
King County prosecutors recently charged Anthony Leonard Hathaway, 45, of Everett on Feb. 14 with one count of robbery in the first degree.
Hathaway was arrested by the Seattle Safe Streets Task Force on Feb. 11 after he was caught robbing a Key Bank in the University District of Seattle.
Several bank employees witnessed a man with a black umbrella run into the bank and demand $100, $50, $20 and $10 bills, according to charging documents.
Hathaway allegedly stole $2,320 from the teller’s cash drawer as he donned a dark colored mask and told everyone in the bank to “get down” on the floor.
Post-miranda, Hathaway later confessed to committing 29 other bank robberies throughout western Washington during the past year, charging documents state.
Several local robberies were included in his confession, including the Kirkland Totem Lake Wells Fargo on Nov. 30, 2013.
Police had been watching Hathaway the day he was arrested in a year-long investigation the task force had been building since the first robbery in Everett.
Hathaway developed a pattern of wearing a metallic-like fabric over his face, similar to the look of a cyborg, and a long sleeve shirt with eye holes cut out, appearing as an “elephant man.”
During several of the bank robberies, the suspect verbally threatened the teller with a weapon but never displayed one.
The investigation led detectives to a suspicious white van that had been used in a recent South Snohomish County robbery.
It was this lead that connected Hathaway to the robberies, according to charging documents.
On the day of Hathaway’s last robbery, investigators followed the van from Everett to Seattle for two hours and observed him changing clothes and getting out of the van with a black umbrella near the Key Bank.
He was arrested shortly after on probable cause.
Hathaway is being held on $750,000 bail and is considered a flight risk and danger to the community.
Charging documents state additional charges will be filed for the other bank robberies.
Hathaway’s arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 27 at the King County Courthouse.
