Dana Connor
The “Dapper Bandit” was busted yesterday in a heap of dirty laundry.
Dana Connor, who has been knocking off banks since the ’70s, was captured by the FBI and NYPD while hiding out in his brother’s Brooklyn apartment, sources told The Post.
Federal agents bashed in the front door with a sledgehammer and stormed into the three-bedroom East New York apartment at 12:45 p.m., the sources said.
The spiffy 52-year-old thief ran into one of the bedrooms and crawled under a mountain of soiled clothes in a futile attempt to hide, sources said.
Searching room to room, agents spotted a lump in the clothing, dragged Connor out from under the pile, and whisked him away for questioning, sources said.
No weapons were recovered in the apartment.
“He’s talking. He’s being cooperative. This guy belongs in the bank-robbery Hall of Fame,” said a law-enforcement source, referring to Connor’s lengthy rap sheet.
In the ’70s, Connor committed up to 20 bank robberies; in the ’80s, he was responsible for about 30 bank jobs, a source said, adding that he used demand notes or guns.
He did a 10-year stretch in federal prison for the 1980s heists, the source said.
In his latest robbery spree, Connor was wanted for 10 gunpoint bank robberies in Manhattan since last September.
“He dresses nicely. He always wears suits and a dress shirt,” said a law-enforcement source.
Connor, who sports a distinctive chest tattoo that reads “Moe Love,” usually entered the banks, slipped a note demanding money to a teller, then flashed a black handgun, cops said.
In some cases, he scored hundreds of dollars; in others, he made off with upwards of $6,000. In the first seven robberies, he netted more than $19,000.
From Sept. 21 to Dec. 27 last year, he allegedly hit 10 banks in Midtown, the Upper East Side, TriBeCa and lower Manhattan, some with Park Avenue addresses.
His biggest target was Capital One bank, which he knocked off four times, cops said.
Two HSBC banks, a Metropolitan bank, a Citibank, a Sterling National and Emigrant were also hit by the sharp-dressed suspect.
Armed bank robberies skyrocketed citywide last year, rising 69 percent from 2010. The number jumped from 26 to 44 in 2011.
Unarmed bank robberies also spiked, with 225 committed in 2011 compared to 192 the previous year. That’s an increase of 17 percent.
The Dapper Bandit is the second bank robber in recent history to plague the city’s financial institutions.
In October, Marat Mikhaylich, 35, better known as the “Holiday Bandit,” admitted to nine holdups he carried out in New York and New Jersey to feed his heroin habit, sources previously told The Post.
Mikhaylich faces 15 years in prison and possible deportation to his native Ukraine.