The FBI seeks the public's help in tracking down the man believed to be responsible for five supermarket bank branch robberies.
View full sizeThe FBI seeks the public's help in identifying and arresting this man suspected of five robberies in supermarket bank branches, including in West Bethlehem and Raritan Township.The bureau seeks the public's help in identifying and arresting the man believed to be responsible for the robberies of five supermarket bank branches in the past two weeks in Lehigh and Bucks counties in Pennsylvania and in the greater Trenton area in New Jersey.
The FBI is labeling the robber the Silent Bandit. He is described as an olive-skinned man in his late 40s or early 50s, 5 feet 6 inches tall, with a medium build, short black or dark hair and a bushy mustache.
Investigators are linking him to the holdup of KNBT inside Giant on West Union Boulevard; robberies of banks in Hopewell and Marlton, N.J., and Warminster, Pa., and, more recently, on Tuesday at Quakertown National Bank in Richland Township, Pa.
On Wednesday at a PNC branch in Stop & Shop in Raritan Township, a man was acting suspiciously in the bank, but authorities couldn't say he was the same person.
"There was a man there acting suspicious," said Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns. "He left, and the bank tellers saw him and thought he met the description."
It remains under investigation, and Kearns said "we don't know for sure yet" if it was the same person.
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," Kearns said.
The FBI says the man should be considered armed and dangerous and asks anyone with information to call the FBI in Philadelphia at 215-418-4000 or the FBI in Newark at 973-792-3000.There may be a reward for information leading to this subject’s capture, according to the FBI, and tipsters may remain anonymous.
- April 3: the first robbery thought to be part of the same chain happens at a KNBT Bank inside a Giant grocery store in Bethlehem.
- April 4: the robber of a PNC Bank inside a Shop Rite store in Marlton, N.J., appears to be the same person who robbed the KNBT the day before.
- April 11: the robber of a PNC Bank inside a Shop Rite grocery store in Warminster, Pa., matches the description of the Silent Bandit.
- April 14: a PNC Bank inside a Shop Rite grocery store in Hopewell, N.J., is robbed by a man matching the Silent Bandit description.
- April 17: the surveillance photo of the robber of a QNB Bank inside a Giant grocery store in Richland Township, Pa., appears to be the Silent Bandit.
- April 18: employees of PNC Bank inside a Stop & Shop in Raritan Township, see a man matching the description of the Silent Bandit and acting suspiciously, but he leaves the store before confronting employees.