Cops, FBI searching for serial bank robber

Cops, FBI searching

for serial bank robber

* Frankford Avenue near Aldine

Authorities believe that the same man robbed at least four banks between Nov. 29 and Monday afternoon, and are asking for help from the public to identify and arrest him.

At 12:33 p.m. Monday, the man walked into a Citizens Bank branch in Holmesburg, and presented a demand note to a teller, police said. The teller handed the man an undisclosed amount of cash, and police said that he may have fled north on Frankford Avenue in an older cream-colored Mazda sedan with another man.

Cops said they believe that the man also robbed a Firsttrust Bank on Frankford Avenue near Tudor Street Dec. 14. The bank is only about a block away from the Citizens Bank branch that was robbed a few days earlier. And he may have robbed a PNC on Frankford Avenue near Longshore in Mayfair on Dec. 7, and a Wells Fargo on 2nd Street near Delancey in Society Hill on Nov. 29. Police said the suspect was white, in his 20s, about 5 feet 8, with brown hair and a scruffy beard. Tipsters are asked to call 215-686-TIPS.

Homicide suspects caught on video

* 5th Street near Ruscomb

Police investigating a double shooting and homicide in Olney on Oct. 1 released surveillance footage of the suspects, filmed just before the incident, and are asking for help from the public.

Two men approached the victims around 3:50 a.m. and argued briefly with them on the street, police said.

One of the men opened fire, fatally wounding Bernabe Montes, 43, who lived on the block. A second man was shot in his abdomen, and was rushed to the Albert Einstein Medical Center in critical condition.

The suspects fled in a small or mid-sized white car, which may have been a 1996 Honda Accord, police said. They are described as black men, both in their mid 20s who are both about 5 feet 10 inches tall, police said. They were both armed and were wearing dark clothing.

Tipsters are asked to call 215-686-TIPS

Sick, dead cats removed from Lawndale home

* Lawndale Avenue

near Levick Street

The Pennsylvania SPCA removed 12 live and six dead cats from a rowhouse in Lawndale yesterday, and expect to arrest a couple who lived there on animal-cruelty charges, among other offenses, a PSPCA spokeswoman said.