By SELIM ALGAR
June 5, 2008
A Long Island bank robber with a penchant for zany disguises was collared after his DNA was matched to material lifted from a Band-Aid discarded during a heist last year, authorities said yesterday.
Thomas Kenney, 58, of East Northport, allegedly earned the nickname "Mad Hatter" after surveillance cameras caught him wearing Indiana Jones style fedoras, Hasidic headgear and a turban.
The married father, a dental-supply-store employee, is accused of robbing 13 banks in Long Island, Queens, and Brooklyn over the past two years. Kenney would threaten tellers with fake nerve gas and bogus bombs, cops said.
Cops finally zeroed in on him last month after getting a description of his car from a witness to one of his heists, sources said. Police said they'd already had the DNA from the bandage, and followed the suspect to a diner and retrieved a glass he had used.
The DNA on the glass matched the DNA on the Band-Aid, cops said.
