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Feds charge serial bank robber for alleged Prospect Heights holdup

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Police arrested a 47 year old man in connection with the robbery of a Flatbush Avenue bank.
NYPD

Federal authorities have arrested an alleged serial bank robber for stealing cash from a Chase Bank in Prospect Heights on July 21, prosecutors said.

According to investigators, the 47-year-old suspect walked into the financial institution at the intersection of Flatbush and Eighth avenues and threatened a teller, saying “I have a gun in my bag, give me $3,000.”

At the time of the alleged robbery, the suspect was wearing a striped shirt, a cloth covering over a baseball hat, and a surgical mask — which Chase bank requires in order to enter any New York branches.

The teller then handed over the cash, and the suspect fled along Flatbush Avenue toward Grand Army Plaza — where surveillance video captured him entering a nearby subway station with his mask pulled around his neck, according to authorities. 

The NYPD later spread surveillance images of the man across its internal systems and its various social media platforms, leading an officer to recognize the alleged thief, prosecutors said.

Authorities arrested the suspect on July 28, and he later confessed to the robbery, according to police.

Following his arrest, police discovered that the suspect had previously been arrested in connection with four other robberies of a single Chase Bank location in Manhattan between 2017 and 2020, according to investigators. 

He also told police that, upon his release, he would once again attempt to rob the Manhattan bank, according to court documents. 

The suspect was virtually arraigned before Magistrate Judge Robert Levy, where a federal judge ordered him detained after he had no bail package to offer — but the defendant joked that he may soon bail himself out. 

“No bail for me sir, your honor,” he said, laughing. “I may do it myself, eventually, I may free myself!”