I'm going to make a slight edit to the original question, to rule out your first guess (which was a good one). We'll have him born in 1975 instead.
I think I have the mask one sussed:
<span class='standouttext'>Spoiler : </span><span class='spoiler'> My mistake was to think of an ice hockey mask as a robber's disguise - but, hey, they use them for ice hockey too! So maybe it WAS an ice hockey goal keeper's mask. The attacker zigged and zagged around a couple of defenders, scored a goal and then returned to his position for the restart. </span>
