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Alex Cabrero reporting The man suspected in five bank robberies in Utah two weeks ago may now be in jail. The FBI says he was caught in Las Vegas. He's in jail because he spoke to a Las Vegas police informant and didn't know it.
According to court documents, an investigator says Brandon Steinberg admitted robbing a bank in Kingman, Ariz. Pictures from that bank's surveillance camera show a suspect who looks exactly like the man who robbed a bank in downtown Salt Lake.
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but FBI investigators say only one word is needed for this picture: guilty. "Helps nail a guy who really needed to be taken off the street," said FBI Special Agent Juan Becerra.
Becerra says the man in the picture is Brandon Steinberg robbing a Key Bank in downtown Salt Lake. He also looks like the man currently in a Las Vegas jail cell for robbing another bank in Arizona.
"We believe, as the investigation is developed and we get our legal process involved, that more will be revealed to crimes he was involved with," Becerra said.
That's because the FBI says he looks like the man robbing a bank in St. George, the man robbing a Brighton bank in South Salt Lake, and the man robbing a Wells Fargo in South Salt Lake. In all, five banks in Utah were robbed in four days.
However, he's currently only charged with the Key Bank robbery in Utah. "We were able to take those photos and show them to the teller, the victims, and the witnesses at the bank, which resulted in a positive identification," Becerra explained.
Steinberg and another man were caught in a Las Vegas hotel room after a police informant tipped investigators that Steinberg admitted to robbing the bank in Arizona. Now, he could be charged with all the robberies.
"To be able to get a win in the win column, to put somebody behind bars who really committed a lot of uneasiness in the community, especially the banking community," Becerra said.
Steinberg is due in court tomorrow morning.
