Law enforcement officers made contact with Peter Sova, who they say dropped a bag filled with cash before asking: "Have you caught the bank robber yet?" says the complaint.
A career criminal in Illinois is facing federal charges after allegedly robbing a bank at gunpoint, while his infant son was home alone.
Peter Sova, 36, is accused of robbing a Huntington Bank on May 6 in McHenry, a city located approximately 50 miles north of Chicago.
A teller at the bank said that a man came in at approximately 10:30 a.m. that morning wearing sunglasses, a hooded sweatshirt and gloves, according to a copy of the federal complaint obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
That man then approached the teller and said "this is a robbery" before instructing the teller to "give me your money in 10 seconds" while holding what appeared to be a gun, according to the complaint.
The man then fled with $4,895 worth of cash, but it was not long before members of the McHenry Police Department arrived on the scene with a K-9 on loan from the McHenry County Sheriff's Office, who managed to quickly track down the suspect in some nearby woods, according to the complaint.
"Law enforcement officers then observed the suspect, later identified as Peter Sova, exit the wood line carrying a bag, which he immediately dropped when he saw officers, and then began to walk away from the bag. Law enforcement officers made contact with Sova and he asked: "Have you caught the bank robber yet?" says the complaint.
Police officers did a quick search of Sova's bag at that time and said they discovered $4,895 in cash with "Huntington-bank labeled currency straps," according to the complaint.
Members of law enforcement later discovered another bag approximately 50 yards away from where they captured Sova, which contained sunglasses and sweatshirts similar to the ones worn by the robber on surveillance video taken inside the bank, according to the complaint.
Once in custody Sova denied robbing the bank and said he had instead been out getting cigarettes while his 9-month-old son was home alone, according to officials. Deputies were then dispatched to his residence where they found the child unharmed. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services says that the infant was returned to his mother after officers notified the agency about the incident.
Sova received a four-year prison sentence after a judge found him guilty of burglary in a 2021 bench trial, court records show. Because that crime had been committed in 2018, Sova was credited with time served and released shortly after his sentencing.
Court records also show that Sova was sentenced to a year of conditional discharge after pleading guilty to resisting an officer in 2013 and a two-month conditional discharge sentence for a 2006 burglary.
Sova had also been evicted from his apartment just two months before his alleged bank heist, according to court records.
His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Sova, who is being held in federal custody, is also charged in McHenry County Circuit Court with felony aggravated robbery, felony theft and felony child abandonment.
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