'Dinnertime bandit' extradited

26 November 2007

BRUSSELS – Alan W. Golder, 52, has been extradited from Belgium and taken to Connecticut in the United States. He was arrested on an international warrant in connection with a string of residential burglaries in the 1990s, police said.

The suspect was called the “dinnertime bandit” because the burglar would strike rich homes in the early evening, sometimes while residents were home eating dinner.

Police obtained a warrant in 1998 charging Golder in 16 burglaries that netted nearly USD 1 million in stolen items from September 1996 to October 1997. He also was accused in seven attempted break-ins

The man is also a suspect in 50 burglaries in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, totalling nearly USD 5 million in stolen jewellery.

According to the Associated Press Agency, Golder was arrested in Belgium in December 2006. His identity was confirmed through fingerprints, authorities said.

He is charged with 15 counts of burglary, 15 counts of larceny, seven counts of attempted burglary and one count each of kidnapping and robbery, police said. He was being held Wednesday on a USD 250,000 cash bond and was scheduled to appear Friday in court.

Golder’s case was featured regularly on television’s “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries” after his disappearance.

Subject: Belgian news

‘Dinnertime bandit’ extradited