Police in Newark credited good police work and tracking devices in bundles of stolen money for the quick arrests of two people who walked into the same bank five days apart and threatened tellers to give them money.
“Those tracking devices made our job easier,” Ambrose said. “But surveillance tapes would have led us to the suspects anyway. The GPS just saved us time.”
Police say Mr. Kadeem Clarke, 26, was arrested on Friday, April 5th, five hours after he walked into the PNC Bank on Central Avenue and slipped tellers a note saying he had a bomb.
According to police he was handed a pack of ten $20 bills but quickly realized it included a GPS device and threw the money into the street just three blocks from the bank.
Surveillance tapes from several locations showed Clarke, who was wearing an easily identifiable sweatshirt, walking away from the bank counting the money.
After police circulated pictures of him, Clarke walked into the Newark Police Emergency Services Unit building that afternoon and turned himself in. He faces charges of Robbery and Creating a False Public Alarm.
Police say on April 10th, Jamine Burnett, 40, walked into the same bank and demanded $1,500 in small bills.
Tellers handed Burnett a pack of $800 with a GPS device. She immediately went into a grocery store and bought several items, then got a cab around the corner from the bank.
Police arrested Burnett inside the taxi cab on Irvine Turner Boulevard less than a half-hour after the robbery.
Police charged Burnett with Robbery and Creating a False Public Alarm.
These charges are merely accusations.
Each suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.