Dinnertime bandit returns to USA

“Dinnertime bandit”, a man, accused of breaking into more than a dozen houses returned to the U.S. after being on the run for 9 years.

Photo: Dinnertime bandit returns to USA

Alan W. Golder, 52, was extradited from Belgium and taken to Connecticut , where he was arrested on a 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 $1 million in stolen items from September 1996 to October 1997. He also was accused in seven attempted break-ins.

Authorities have said Golder is also a suspect in 50 burglaries in New York , New Jersey and Pennsylvania , totaling nearly $5 million in stolen jewelry.

Police did not immediately know whether Golder had an attorney.

Golder was arrested in Belgium in December 2006, and 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 $250,000 ( EUR 168,759) 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.