With a derby and a blond wig stashed in his getaway car, a New York City police officer robbed a bank in Pennsylvania on Thursday and made off with $113,000 before he was arrested, according to the police and a criminal complaint.The police in Muhlenberg Township, Pa., said the officer, Christian A. Torres, 21, of Woodhaven, Queens, robbed a Sovereign Bank branch in the township just after 8 a.m. He was charged with robbery, ordered held in $500,000 bail and suspended from the New York force.
One of the arresting officers, Christopher A. Orvech of the Muhlenberg police, said a man wearing a black suit approached a bank employee outside the branch at 8:11 a.m. and asked her about mortgage rates. She told him she would help him when the bank opened. He then turned away, but when the employee entered the bank, he pushed his way in, Officer Orvech said. An employee already at her desk saw the disturbance and triggered a silent alarm, he said.
The robber then ordered the employees into the vault; he ordered one employee, at gunpoint, to put money in a shopping bag, and threatened to harm the workers, the criminal complaint said. The robber then fled.
Officer Orvech, who said he was in his patrol car when he heard about the bank alarm, arrived to find a man dressed in business attire leaving the bank with a full plastic bag.
“He looked just like a regular customer,” he said.
As the man got into a car and started to drive away, Officer Orvech said, he noticed that the license plate was turned backward so the numbers were facing the bumper. A bank employee pointed to the car, and Officer Orvech pulled it over.
The driver, who said he had just come out of a CVS store, said he was a New York City police officer, showing his badge and identification, Officer Orvech said. He found a 9-millimeter Glock handgun in the man’s waistband and discovered the wig, the derby and a CVS bag with bundles of cash on the floor of the vehicle, Officer Orvech said. The police said it was not clear whether Officer Torres had intended to use the wig and the hat as a disguise.
As he was being handcuffed, “he was very calm, almost like he was going to talk his way out of it,” Officer Orvech said. Officer Torres was charged with two counts of robbery, assault, theft, as well as other counts, the police complaint said.
The most serious charge, felony robbery, carries a prison sentence of 10 years or more, said Judge Dean R. Patton of Berks County Magisterial District Court in Reading, Pa., who set bail at $500,000.
Judge Patton scheduled a preliminary hearing for April 21. Officer Torres was being held in the Berks County Prison.
Paul J. Browne, a New York Police Department spokesman, said Officer Torres had been suspended from the force. He joined the department in July 2007 and was assigned to the Brooklyn transit bureau, Mr. Browne said. The New York department is also investigating the robbery.
The police union in New York City, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declined to comment.
