economist sunsuntribune crime saturday nov 5 2005 you dont have to be on the street are you 1519 years old and need a place to stay while you sort things out rathways contact us at pathways at 905 4717877 this message brought to you as a community serv ice of the economist suntribune recipe bandit cooking up trouble for police squads by martin derbyshire staff writer police call him the recipe bandit and so far he has cooked up 26 bank robberies across southern ontario including three in york region the first robbery was in midaugust and the latest strike came when two banks were hit in toronto tuesday the three york robberies include an oct 18 heist at a cibc branch on davis drive in newmarket the cibc in king oct 4 and a scotiabank branch on west on road in vaughan sept 26 the bandits modus operandi is fairly consistent york regional police holdup squad detsgt fred moffatt said in almost every instance the thief comes into the bank looking like a regu lar customer sunglasses and a ball cap are his only disguises he awaits his turn at the wick et and shows the teller a note printed on a recipe card it indicates he has a gun and wants money detsgt moffatt said but theres been no gun seen lately hes become even more demanding and desperate hammering on the counter during the most recent robberies detsgt moffatt said were not sure whats fueling this he said were speculating he may have some kind of drug dependency since the robberies have centred around toronto reaching out to hamil ton halton peel and york police forces across jurisdictions are working togeth- your family may qualify for child care fee assistance pt4 j w 3 23 h m s do you need help with the cost of child care do you live in york region please call us now you may he eligible for new government funding gall the york region kids line to see if you qualify toll free 18887035437 h in newmarket 905 8309487 h nonenglish speaking families can call the language line at 1 8662439924 for child care translation if you have any questions visit wwwyorkca and look under have questions in the whats new section qtflffll community services and housing department family and childrens services division er officers believe the culprit is from out of province and may have recently moved here since surveillance video pictures havent turned up anybody who recognizes him detsgt moffatt said the canadian bankers association is now offering a 10000 reward for infor mation leading to the arrest and convic tion of the recipe bandit there were 16 bank robberies in york region in 2004 and 13 so far this year most bank robberies arent commit ted by serial bandits but york cops did track down a man they believe is responsible for five bank jobs earlier this year two whitchurchstouffville banks and one each in newmarket vaughan and richmond hill were robbed before peel police identified a suspect in a con venience store robbery as a possible sus pect in the york robberies man char in letter scam police arrested a man in vaughan last month on various fraud charges and are now investigating a nigerian letter scam obafemi ope coker of no fixed address was arrested outside a vaughan walmart in late october police found stolen credit card data government cheques and other forged documents fraud investigators believe the docu ments point to possible involvement with a nigerian letter scam victims of the scam usually receive an unsolicited email or letter from someone in a different country seeking assistance to finalize a deal or bank transaction the person in canada is offered a piece of the action and a cheque is sent for a greater amount than what is needed for the transaction the victim is asked to send back the difference and once that occurs the cheque is found to be illegitimate and the funds charged back to the victims account internationally recognized public speaker jransformjfour inner self the powerful seminar thar has chanced thousands of lives located at ontario science centre sunday november 27 1 0am to 6pm eliminate the source of your fears insecurities attachment and suffering clearly see how anger is produced and eliminate it stop attracting the same type of people and circumstances that make you suffer identify your intellectual physical emotional potential paradise is not a place its a state of mind limited seating tickets 90 piusgst if you dont do something for yourself nobody else will ticketrhaster 416 8708000 wwwtickctmastcrca