BANK ROBBERIES IN WEST MILFORD AND JEFFERSON. This news article by Ann Genader mentions West Milford History Group Member and Contributor, retired West Milford Police Lieutenant Peter Van Gilst. The article also answers a question I posted here last year that went unanswered. I have in my house an old advertisement that shows The First National Bank of Butler had a Newfoundland branch. I recall asking Kevin Byrnes where the Newfoundland branch of the Butler bank was and he did not know. The answer to that question is provided in the last paragraph of Miss Genaders newspaper article. When banks were robbed in West Milford and Jefferson JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 12:31 AM BY ANN GENADER CORRESPONDENT AIM WEST MILFORD Bank robberies that happened years ago in the West Milford and Jefferson areas had people discussing them a long time after each incident. The robberies left some people fearful – and for the first time doors on homes that were never locked before suddenly were. On Feb. 3, 1970, a masked gunman held up the Lakeland State Bank on Route 23, Newfoundland at 10:45 a.m. The robbery in broad daylight netted the bandit slightly over $5,000. Reports from that time said the person was alone and made a successful getaway on foot through rain-drenched, snow covered fields. The late Police Lieutenant Louis Hall was on the scene in minutes after the thief left. He followed tracks - believed to be the robber’s - alongside a creek that led to the Charlottesburg Reservoir. Other police joined the officer in following the tracks an additional distance but did not catch up to anyone. Police speculated at the time that an accomplice was waiting for the robber on Route 23 South, a few hundred feet from the reservoir. The suspect was described as a young male with dark hair, about six feet two inches tall and thin. He was wearing a cotton hooded sweat shirt and got out of a dark blue Ford Galaxie that had come from Union Valley Road, police said at the time. They said that soon afterward the man appeared in the bank with a black handgun with a large barrel. The report went on to say the hood was pulled tightly around his head and a nylon stocking was pulled over his face and neck. There were no customers in the bank at the time. Four female clerks and two bank officers were at their posts. The robber burst into the building and motioned to everyone to get into a teller’s area. His only statement was: Don’t anybody move. The Sunday collection of donations at a local church sat on the counter and was in the process of being counted. The thief immediately scooped the money into a brown paper bag and then emptied a teller’s drawer. Liz Anderson who was a reporter for The Tri-County Gazette – a publication by Peter Vonderhorst that no longer exists – told police she had been traveling on Route 23 South and as she passed the Newfoundland intersection, she saw a dark green pickup truck by the rock cut. She said that the truck took her attention as it backed up along the road shoulder. Police said they were told by Anderson that by the time she reached the area the truck was stopped and the three male occupants appeared to be watching someone or something in the field. Anderson drove on. At the time police said they would have liked to know who the men were and what they were watching. The case was never solved. When the Butler office of Lakeland Bank opened at 1410 Route 23, just a few miles down the highway from the Newfoundland office, it became the fourth Lakeland Bank after offices opened in Hewitt and Wanaque. In November of 1976 a man entered the bank with a gun and took the manager hostage, a report stated. The Paterson News reported that he tried to rob the bank and fled. The report said while threatening to kill bank manager John McNamara and teller John Fitzgerald the intruder tried unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes to figure a way to open the bank vault. After a struggle inside the bank, according to the news report, McNamara escaped and the man ran into the woods. Police searched but were unable to find him. The report goes on to say that as McNamara was closing the back door at 8 p.m. a man jumped out of the bushes, put a gun to his head and forced him back into the bank. The bank had just closed and the only other person there was the teller. The intruder threatened to kill both men if they refused to open the vault. He continued trying to open the vault not believing it was on a time clock and could not be opened until the next day, as the bank men reportedly said. Afraid police might be coming, the gunman again took McNamara hostage and forced him to leave through the back door. Police were waiting in the bushes and grabbed the assailant after McNamara managed to push him. The man ran off and several shots were fired but it was unknown if he was hit the Paterson News report said. There was no arrest. In July 1996 the bank in the Rockport (now Bearfort) Shopping Center, West Milford, was robbed. A former West Milford resident with an Oklahoma address was arrested and charged by police with the alleged robbery of the Fleet Bank on Aug. 8 of that year. A police report by Detective Harry Shortway of the West Milford Police Department said the arrest of Hamed A. Elbarki was made by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) bank robbery task force at a luxury hotel in Manhattan, N.Y. At the time police said the suspect – who had moved to Oklahoma about 3 years earlier – was staying at the Marriott Marquis when he was arrested. They said agents from the FBI’s Violent Crimes-Fugitive Task Force in West Paterson and agents from the FBI’s New York office raided several locations before they located Elbarki at the Marriott. Shortway reported to AIM at the time that leads developed by West Milford Police Detectives Paul Costello and Peter Van Gilst led to Elbarki’s arrest. The police report said the suspect entered the bank earlier on the day of July 31 on pretext of opening a bank account. The report said he returned to the bank and allegedly robbed it at 3:50 p.m. He was allegedly admitted by the manager since it was after regular business hours. There was still another bank robbery in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. It was at a satellite office of a Butler-based bank. The trailer/bank was located in the area of the fair grounds on Green Pond Road in the Newfoundland section of Jefferson Township near Route 23. People still living in the area recall this happening – but so far no one has been found who recalls the details and if the alleged robber(s) involved were caught.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 09:23:14 +0000
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