Suspected ‘Syringe Bandit’ Held

A convicted robber with a history of drug use, in custody for violation of parole, was identified Tuesday as the so-called “syringe bandit” who threatened robbery victims in the San Fernando Valley with a hypodermic needle that he claimed contained AIDS-infected blood, police said.

At least four witnesses at a lineup at the Los Angeles County Central Jail on Tuesday positively identified Wesley Pledger, 35, of Northridge, as the man who terrorized store clerks by threatening them with the syringe, investigators said.

Police said they would ask the district attorney’s office today to charge Pledger in the series of eight holdups last week in Northridge and Canoga Park.

Lt. Kyle Jackson said police do not plan to test Pledger for the AIDS virus, which would require a court order.

“It’s not an issue whether he has AIDS or doesn’t, or had AIDS in the hypo,” Jackson said. “We have no reason to believe anyone’s been contaminated or exposed to the virus. The issue is robbery. (The syringe) was just his method of operation.”

Pledger lived in the area where the robberies took place, said Lt. John M. Dunkin, a department spokesman. His arrest came after officers from the Devonshire Division showed still photos taken from store video cameras to neighborhood and business watch groups, Dunkin said.

At a business watch meeting on Saturday, a member of the group said he recognized Pledger from the photos, Dunkin said. He said he had just fired Pledger.

Police then determined that Pledger was on parole, contacted his parole officer to learn his whereabouts and took him into custody. He was held on the parole violation for possession of a cocaine pipe, police said.

Dunkin added that several witnesses shown the inmate’s photograph before the lineup were unable to confirm or eliminate him as the suspected syringe bandit. The lineup, attended by six to nine witnesses, was then held to see if a positive identification could be made, Dunkin said.

No one was injured during the confrontations at convenience stores and other small businesses. But the thief’s unusual weapon seemed to capture the city’s imagination and draw on fears of contracting the AIDS virus through a brief jab or by being squirted in the eye--which AIDS authorities said would be highly unlikely.

Pledger was on parole for robbery and has a history of drug use, Dunkin said. He was arrested in the northern San Fernando Valley, where most of the syringe robberies occurred, and fits the robber’s general description, Dunkin said.

In almost every robbery last week, the tall, blond, mustachioed thief approached his victims armed with a needle and told them he had AIDS and “This syringe contains my blood.” Some victims told police he tried to jab them. Others said he simply implied he could infect them if they failed to comply with his demand for money.

The highly publicized crimes inspired at least one apparent copycat, who robbed a Hawthorne store of $20 last Thursday after displaying a vial filled with red fluid.

The Valley’s so-called syringe bandit obtained a car, eight cartons of cigarettes worth about $150 and $62 in cash in his robberies, police said.

In addition to witnesses’ description of the man, police obtained still photographs of him from a videotape that documented his robbery of a Northridge 7-Eleven.