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Is NM Man 'Blue Collar Bandit'?

Time Cards Show Chris Evans Working In NM When Robber Hit Phoenix Banks

POSTED: 11:26 am MST December 23, 2009
UPDATED: 12:23 pm MST December 23, 2009

FBI agents arrested the man they believe is the "Blue Collar Bandit" responsible for seven bank robberies; however, the man's fiancée insists he has an ironclad alibi.

New Mexico resident Chris Evans, 29, was arrested Dec. 9 after an anonymous caller tipped off FBI agents. Bank tellers identified him as the Blue Collar Bandit via photo lineups.

Nevertheless, Evans' fiancée, Kristen McKinney, insists that Evans is innocent.

"I kept yelling at the (arresting) officers, 'What are you doing? You have the wrong person!'" she said.

She said the dates of the robberies -- Aug. 6, 11 and 20 and Sept. 3, 9, and 16 -- and Evans' travel plans don't match up.

"We've only been back here to Phoenix two times -- for my grandfather's funeral and for my niece's birthday," she said.

Additionally, time cards from his job as a plumber showed Evans was at work when all the robberies occurred.

"We got his timecards out to see if he was here those dates, and lo and behold, he was," Evans' boss Rick Crawford said.

Chris Evans, Blue Collar Bandit
The FBI believes Chris Evans (left) is the bank robber known as the "Blue Collar Bandit" (right).

Several years ago, Crawford installed a $10,000 hand-recognition machine to make sure employees were honest on their time cards. Each employee has his or her own code and has to be identified by his or her individual handprint before the machine, which reads 95 different points on a person's palm, will clock them in.

"The records don't lie," Crawford said. "He was here."

McKinney agreed.

"The FBI clearly has the wrong person, and they're making a huge mistake," she said.

The FBI has the time card evidence; however, it continues to push forward with its case against Evans.

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