A Toms River NJ man was recently convicted on robbery charges for plotting a theft from a Brick Township bank in 2015.
Remarkably, the suspect was convicted of first degree armed robbery despite the fact that he was using a toy gun. Moreover, the bank that the suspect planned to rob was actually locked when he arrived, so the robbery was thwarted before it could even begin.
Nevertheless, an Ocean County jury still found the suspect guilty on the felony charges. As a result, he will likely be sentenced to more than a decade behind bars for the botched robbery attempt.
The suspect tried to commit the bank robbery a short time after 5:00 p.m. on October 6, 2015. At the time, the suspect was 22 years old and resided in Toms Rivers, New Jersey. He walked into the vestibule of the TD Bank located on Hooper Avenue in Brick NJ and flashed a toy gun in the hopes that a bank employee would believe it to be a loaded firearm.
The suspect did not realize that he would be unable to get into the locked bank after hours, so he desperately banged on a glass door and attempted to get someone’s attention. While this was going on, employees inside the bank hid beneath their desks and waited for the suspect to give up and leave. As soon as the suspect abandoned his robbery attempt, bank workers contacted local law enforcement.
Witnesses told Brick NJ police officers that the suspect drove off in a blue Toyota. Another person at the bank actually got into a vehicle and followed the suspect’s car to Beaverson Boulevard. That information came in handy for Brick detectives, who were later able to locate and stop the suspect’s vehicle near the intersection of Beaverson Boulevard and Shorrock Street. The suspect was subsequently placed under arrest.
While searching the suspect’s car, police reportedly discovered an Airsoft handgun. It is believed that this was the same imitation firearm used by the suspect during the attempted bank robbery.
In addition to finding the suspect guilty on the first degree armed robbery charges, the Ocean County jury also found him guilty of a weapons offense for unlawful possession of an imitation firearm.
When the suspect is sentenced on the criminal charges in November, he will be subject to a term of incarceration of 20 years in New Jersey State Prison. Moreover, since first degree felonies typically carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in state prison, the suspect is probably looking at spending at least a decade behind bars for the botched bank robbery.
For additional information, access the following article: Would-be robber with fake gun convicted of trying to rob a locked bank