Second bank arrest

JOLIET — Last week Jon Swartz was arrested after reportedly refusing to leave a local bank. Tuesday he was jailed after robbing one, police said.

Swartz, 37, held up the Harris Bank seven blocks from his 508 Campbell St. home about 4 p.m., police said. Officers apprehended Swartz as he ambled west on Campbell Street from the bank on Midland. He was carrying two brown paper bags full of money when he was captured, police said.

A Harris Bank customer said he came face to face with Swartz.

"He had this real weird look in his face," said the local man, who asked not to be named.

The man said he was straightening out his bank accounts when he noticed Swartz barking orders at a teller. He first thought Swartz was angry and arguing with the woman.

"He was pissed off," the man said.

But Swartz then started going down the counter and collecting manila envelopes from the tellers, the man said.

The man said Swartz looked him in the eye from less than a foot away and ordered him to move. Swartz then backed out of the bank, he said. As he departed, Swartz made cryptic exclamations, shouting, "'This is owed me,' or something like that," the man said.

In a separate incident Friday morning, Swartz was arrested after refusing to leave First Midwest Bank in downtown Joliet, police said.

Bank personnel reportedly called police and asked them to remove Swartz from the bank at 50 W. Jefferson St. Officers arrived and told Swartz to leave. He then told them that "it would take an army to make him go," according to a police report.

Two officers removed him from the bank, and he was charged with criminal trespass to land.

Swartz, who was released on his own recognizance on the trespass charge, also was told not to return to the downtown bank.

Swartz appears to have wanted to initiate a confrontation with officers Tuesday in order to end his life, a police source said. Notes were found on his person at the time of his arrest Tuesday indicating that this was his ambition, the source said.

Swartz was booked into custody at the county jail on a charge of robbery.

Swartz was sentenced to three years in prison for a retail theft charge after pleading guilty in 1995.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.