- Robert Toye
Robert Toye, (b 1948?) nicknamed "Blind Bob" is a US
bank robber who islegally blind .Robert Vernon Toye was born in
San Pedro, California and developedretinitis pigmentosa in the early age. In 1968 he begin a mail scam where people would send him $5 application fee to receive work stuffing envelopes. 1973 he was sentenced formail fraud and jailed inSpringfield, Missouri . In prison he heard thatbank teller s in federally insured banks were instructed to hand out the money to robbers without incident.So, when Toye was released 1974, he proceeded to make his first bank robbery shortly after he had left the prison. He was armed only with his white cane and a note that claimed he had a gun.
Toye concentrated on using his right eye to see shadowy impressions of other people's feet and followed them to the bank teller's window. There he would flash a
one-eyed jack with a text "Be quick, be quiet, or you're dead. Put all the cash in the bag. I have a gun". When he had received the money, he retreated back to the door. He used the same technique many times.Toye was captured 1977 in
New York City when he collided with armed guards that were delivering money to the bank. Next six years he spent in theMetropolitan Correctional Center in New York. When he got out in February 1983, he went to aCitibank and stole $18,000.Toye moved to Las Vegas but made a list of all the Citibank branches in New York. Nine times he flew to New York to rob a bank and immediately returned to Las Vegas after the robbery. He put the money in a Vegas
bank account under a false name. He was arrestedMay 24 1983 when he took a detour to a discount store. Toye was sentenced to 17 years and tried to escape 11 times.In an interview for the "People" magazine in 1990, Toye claimed that he had given part of his loot to charity, including to retinitis pigmentosa research. At the time he had robbed 17 banks and was serving time in
Lompoc Federal Penitentiary , nearSanta Barbara, California , due to be released 1993.External links
* [http://www.blind.net/bg599999.htm Copy of the "People" magazine article about Toye in the pages of National Federation of the Blind]
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