Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

KANSAS CITY, KAN. –  An Illinois man pleaded guilty Monday to being the getaway driver in a $53,000 hold up at a Verizon store in Village West, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said. The robbers held store employees at gunpoint and bound them with zip ties.

 

Terry Curtis, 34, Rockford, Il., pleaded guilty to one count of commercial robbery. In his plea, he admitted that on Sept. 14, 2016, he was involved when four men robbed the Verizon Wireless store at 10621 Village West Parkway. Two of the robbers entered the store, followed two minutes later by the other two. The robbers locked the door and ordered the employees and a customer into a break room. The robbers ordered them to lay face down on the floor and tied their hands behind their backs. The robbers forced an employee to open a safe before they fled the store with phones and cash worth $53,000. Eventually, an employee managed to get loose and call police.

 

Investigators used surveillance photos from the robbery to tie the Kansas City robbery to a similar robbery weeks earlier at an AT&T Store in Rochester, Minn. They also received an anonymous call that led them to one of the co-defendants who was on parole in Illinois.

 

During the investigations, agents learned that some of the defendants in the Verizon robbery were part of a group involved in dozens of similar robberies in several states.

 

Curtis’ sentencing will be set for a later date. Both parties have agreed to recommend 72 months in federal prison.

 

Co-defendants who are awaiting trial include:

Beall commended the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead for their work on the case.

 

In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.