A highly respected retired NYPD detective super cop with
inoperable liver cancer was charged with bank robbery Friday after
authorities identified him as the so-called Bling Bandit, suspected of
pulling off nine heists while blinged out with a fancy watch and rings.
Athelson
Kelson, 59, (his name is borderline a hot mess) surrendered with his lawyer Thursday in Queens on charges of
robbing banks at gunpoint. According to a source here is his resume:
- a former member of the FBI’s
Joint Terrorism Task Force - recipient of a Purple Heart during the
Vietnam War - infiltrated the Black Panthers and investigated JoAnne Chesimard, the Black Liberation Army leader and convicted cop-killer.
- one of the most caring and effective police union reps.
His resume or should we say rap sheet now includes knocking of 9 banks in the New York City area, brandishing a semi automatic pistol at least twice. All while not even trying to adiquittly trying to disguise himself.
Police are baffled at what could have caused such a “fearless lawman” to have turned to crime. Some speculate the liver cancer could have caused him to go insane. Other’s speculate he was trying to comit suicide by cop either because the cancer, his crumbling marriage, or maybe some guilty feelings of past police work.