By: Kafi Rosenbaum
On Thursday, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago reported that a Colt's Neck man committed a string of robberies and a burglary over the course of about a month in 2021. He has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
According to officials, shortly after 1:15 p.m. on Saturday, November 13, 2021, an individual who was later identified as Conor Kavanagh approached a teller window at the PNC Bank inside the Stop & Shop supermarket on Route 36 in Keyport.
Prosecutor Santiago said Kavanagh then passed a note indicating he was in possession of a weapon and made off with a quantity of cash, leaving the scene in a green Toyota pickup truck.
At approximately 4 p.m. on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, officials say a bank robbery occurred at the Wells Fargo branch on Newman Springs Road in the Lincroft section of Middletown. The bank robbery was committed in an identical fashion to the earlier one in Keyport, with the suspect wearing similar clothing and also leaving the scene in a green Toyota pickup truck.
Three days later, on Friday, December 17, Prosecutor Santiago said the Wells Fargo branch on Route 36 in Eatontown was robbed. Again, a suspect passed a note demanding money, indicating that he was in possession of a weapon.
Following the bank robbery in Middletown, Detectives from the Middletown Police Department developed information that led to Kavanagh being identified as a potential suspect.
After the bank robbery in Eatontown, Middletown Detectives and assisting members of the FBI observed Kavanagh driving a green pickup truck that matched the description of the vehicle used in the earlier bank robberies and placed him under arrest.
Prosecutor Santiago said detectives searched the pickup truck and located proceeds from the Eatontown bank robbery and the clothing the suspect was seen wearing on surveillance footage. They also located information pertaining to a storage unit in Shrewsbury; a search of that location revealed proceeds from the Keyport and Middletown bank robberies.
Kavanagh will be subject to having no contact with the victims, as well as making restitution, and is also not allowed to return to the financial institutions where the crimes were committed. The charges stem from three robberies, all committed within a month of each other in the fall of 2021.
Additionally, a search of the cell phone Kavanagh was using contained evidence of online searches for local bank branches.