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A Romeoville man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to the attempted holdup of a Plainfield bank in which he took employees hostage and kept police at bay in a tense standoff in June 2003.
Edward Binert, 36, also admitted he escaped with a combined total of almost $150,000 in three separate robberies of banks in Bolingbrook and Plainfield in 2002.
Binert faces up to nearly 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 18.
Binert admitted he took about $25,000 at gunpoint from the First National Bank of Illinois in Plainfield, but before he could escape, police arrived. He held three employees hostage for about three hours before he surrendered.