‘Bling Bandit’ iced

Just two days after local newspapers and TV stations showed surveillance photos of the bank robber nicknamed the “Bling Bandit,” a 59-year-old hero of the Vietnam War and three decades of undercover detective work with the New York Police Department (NYPD) sits in a hospital prison ward, awaiting psychiatric evaluation.
Athelston Kelson, of Central Islip, walked into the 105th Precinct command in Queens Village on the night of Thursday, August 28, accompanied by his attorney. He was suspected in a string of bank robberies dating back to mid-June in Nassau and Queens.
The “Bling Bandit” moniker was quickly attached to the bank robber observed wearing several rings and a large, bright wrist watch, who made little attempt to conceal his identity.
Late Friday afternoon, Kelson was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court, charged with the July 10 robbery of the Chase Bank branch at 205-32 Linden Boulevard in St. Albans. He allegedly fled with $600, taking his hold-up note with him, reports claimed.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called the case “sad and shocking,” and said Kelson had an “excellent reputation.” Kelly said, “He was very well thought of in the department.”
Kelson, received the Purple Heart for being wounded in Vietnam, joined the NYPD in 1972, and was part of the elite FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, going undercover to infiltrate the radical Black Panthers group.
The arrest sent shock waves through the law enforcement community.
“He didn’t hide who he was, wear gloves or cover his face. He was begging to be recognized and caught,” a police source said.
According to Michael Palladino, president of the Detective’s Endowment Association, Kelson was “a Vietnam War hero,” who served “In some of the most dangerous and prestigious assignments. He was also one of the most caring and effective union reps we had,” Palladino remarked.
Kelly said that Kelson was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer shortly after his retirement in 2005. “He was a shell of himself,” a police source reportedly said. “Maybe the pressure of his illness made him lose it - he certainly didn’t do anything to disguise who he was.”
News reports also suggest that he was in financial trouble - shortly before the robbery spree began in mid-June, a civil judgment of more than $8,200 was filed against Kelson in Suffolk County.
In two of the robberies the suspect brazenly showed a semi-automatic handgun so the police considered him armed and dangerous - leading to speculation that Kelson may have been attempting a “suicide by cop.”
Kelson was being questioned about the Nassau County bank robberies, police reportedly said. Bank employees have reportedly picked him out of a police line-up.
During the St. Albans heist, he allegedly handed the teller a note that said, “Do not press the alarm, give me all the large bills in your drawer, I have a gun, I do not want to hurt anyone, no dye, no bait money, you have 10 seconds,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement.
Kelson is due back in court on Friday, September 12. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of the one robbery, according to DA Brown.