Edwardsville woman who robbed bank 12 years ago sentenced to prison after forging check
An Edwardsville woman has been sentenced to three years in state prison for violating probation by committing forgery almost immediately after pleading guilty to fraud in Cook County Circuit Court.
Silk P. Lumpkins, 47, formerly of the Chicago area, also served time in federal prison for robbing a bank 12 years ago.
In July, Lumpkins pleaded guilty to Class 3 felony state benefits fraud for omitting income and asset information from her application for a Chicago Housing Authority voucher program, according to a news release from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office.
“The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides important housing benefits to residents in need, and it is inexcusable that anyone would lie to obtain benefits to which they are not entitled,” Raoul stated.
His office had alleged that Lumpkins fraudulently obtained more than $100,000 in benefits over several years. A Cook County judge placed her on probation and ordered her to pay $105,762 in restitution, including $20,000 due on the day she entered her plea.
Lumpkins submitted a cashier’s check, which the housing authority deposited, according to the news release. The check was later returned, and the agency determined it was a $20 check that she had altered to make the amount look like $20,000.
In Cook County Circuit Court last week, Lumpkins admitted to violating her probation by forging the cashier’s check, according to the news release.
“To further defraud the CHA by attempting to pay court-ordered restitution with a forged check is a brazen violation,” Raoul stated. “I am committed to ensuring that individuals are held accountable for exploiting government programs, particularly when families are wait-listed until the support they deserve is available.”
In 2011, a federal judge in Rockford sentenced Lumpkins, then 36 and living in Crystal Lake, northeast of Chicago, to 18 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to robbing a Chase Bank on May 26, 2010, in the nearby village of Cary.
A news release from the office of then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois stated that Lumpkins had admitted the following:
- She entered the bank about 2:20 p.m. on a Wednesday, wearing a disguise consisting of heavy make-up on her face and hands, a long blonde wig, a long-sleeved shirt and a baseball cap.
- She wrote a note at the self-service desk, approached a teller at the counter and handed the teller the note, which stated something to the effect of, “If you don’t want to die today, give me all your money. You have 30 seconds to do this.”
- The teller removed $5,876 from her drawer and handed the money to Lumpkins, who put it in a blue Chase deposit bag that she had brought with her and walked out of the bank.
Police apprehended Lumpkins in nearby Fox River Grove a week later, after two employees at that village’s Chase Bank branch called about a suspicious person pacing outside the entrance, according to a Crystal Lake-Cary Patch story based on an interview with the police chief.
“The woman described strongly resembled the picture of the person who had robbed the Cary branch the preceding week,” the Patch reported.
“While walking through a nearby apartment complex parking lot, (police) encountered Lumpkins in a vehicle, still wearing the heavy makeup and clothing witnesses described. A blonde wig, black gloves, a black baseball hat and a blue Chase deposit bag were uncovered in the vehicle.”
Lumpkins later told investigators that she had committed the bank robbery to buy food, clothing, bicycles, shoes and other items for her children at stores such as Sam’s Club, the Patch reported.
The judge ordered Lumpkins to pay $5,876 in restitution and serve an additional three years of supervised release after her 18 months in prison, including six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring.
In August of last year, a Chicago Sun-Times story featured Lumpkins and her triplet sons, who had received free Chromebooks and other dorm-room supplies through the Chicago Housing Authority’s Take Flight College Send-Off program and Springboard to Success.
The story noted that the 18-year-olds represented the first generation in their family to attend college.
“College was never not an option,” Lumpkins told a reporter at the time, adding that the Chromebooks would help her sons succeed.
“There’s a difference between having a computer that works sometimes and having a computer that you can do your work on and get it done on time,” she was quoted as saying. “This is the difference between having an ‘A’ grade and having a ‘C’ grade.”
Lumpkins has no criminal charges listed in Madison County or St. Clair County records.
This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 10:40 AM.
