WPD Searches for Information in BOA Robbery

-By Joseph Domelowicz

For the Transcript

Winthrop police are continuing their investigation this week into a brazen bank robbery at the Bank of America branch on Bartlett Road last Friday morning, just shortly after the bank opened for the day.

Police Chief Terrence Delehanty said that detectives from Winthrop are working with investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Massachusetts State Police and the bank robbery task force in developing leads and identifying suspects.

“We believe this robbery was carried out by one suspect, acting alone,” said Delehanty. “All of the evidence points to that at this point. We do have leads in this investigation, and they are being vetted by all participating agencies.”

According to Delehanty, Winthrop police were notified of the robbery at approximately 9:17 a.m. and bank officials and video evidence indicates the robbery took place at 9:13 a.m.

Police have confirmed through still photos released from the video cameras that the suspect entered the bank wearing a white baseball cap pulled down on his head and dark sunglasses, that obscured a portion of his face (Please see photos on this page), and he was carrying a small duffel style gym bag.

The suspect then approached a teller, handed over a note that indicated that he was carrying a bomb in the bag, showed a device to the teller and took all of the money from one teller drawer, before fleeing the scene.

Delehanty explained that upon arriving on the scene, Winthrop police with the help of the State Police bomb squad and the Winthrop fire department, evacuated the neighborhood surrounding the bank and made a sweep of the area to make sure that he hadn’t tossed the bomb aside or left it behind to cover his tracks.

“We do believe strongly that this is the same robber who executed a similar robbery at a bank in Everett the day before (on Thursday, March 3),” said Chief Delehanty. ‘The same techniques were used in both robberies, so we believe that he has at least those two robberies under his belt.”

Initial reports indicate that the robber got away with “a couple of thousand dollars” in the Winthrop robbery and a similar amount of money in the Everett case as well.

“The thing we need from the public is for everyone to take a good, close look at the photos we released, to see if the clothing, the hat or anything about what the suspect was wearing seems familiar to them,” said Delehanty. “The suspects face is not clear in the photos, but some of the clothing he is wearing is pretty identifiable, so if we can find people who wear those specific pieces of clothing, it might be enough to help us make an identification.”