Bank Robberies

Gary Pevley's reluctance to change landed him in jail. Montgomery Township Police arrested the 26-year-old Montgomeryville man after he allegedly robbed the Germantown Savings Bank last Thursday - wearing the same clothes, carrying the same weapon and using the same methods as when he allegedly robbed the same bank six days before. The second time it didn't work. Pevley, of the 200 block of DeKalb Pike, was arraigned Friday in front of District Justice Robert L. Kulp on two counts each of robbery, theft, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and possessing an instrument of crime.

A federal halfway-house escapee has been charged with robbing four banks in the last two months. Anthony Wayne Ransom, 44, turned himself in to Reading police Thursday night. Last week, authorities distributed a photograph of a man identified as Ransom taken by a surveillance camera during the July 12 robbery of the Citizens Bank branch at 2516 Welsh Rd. Ransom, who wore an odd headband with a metallic object, gave a teller a threatening note and left with an unspecified amount of cash, the FBI said.

A Camden man whom authorities called the "freckle-faced robber" was arrested yesterday afternoon and charged with robbing a Clementon bank of an undisclosed amount of money, according to the FBI. Anthony Livingston, 29, was arrested in Camden within a few hours of the 2:20 p.m. holdup at the Sovereign Bank in the 100 block of Berlin Road, authorities said. He was being questioned about at least five other South Jersey bank robberies in the last month, said Agent Adrienne Menn, a spokeswomen for the FBI's Philadelphia office.

A 27-year-old Philadelphia woman was arrested in Camden and charged yesterday with two Philadelphia bank robberies earlier in the week. Eileen Millevoi, who gave addresses in the 10000 block of Avon Terrace in the Somerton section of Philadelphia, and at the Oasis Motel in the 2100 block of Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden, was being held without bail, pending a hearing in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Friday. Howard Wiener, assistant United States prosecutor in Camden, said Millevoi appeared in U.S. District Court in Camden yesterday and waived extradition to Pennsylvania.

'It got a little out of control," Ryan Gosling says about the abundant tattooage he's sporting in The Place Beyond the Pines . A top hat, a Bible, an owl, twin boxers, a snake, a three-masted schooner, letters on his knuckles: H-A-N-D on one hand, S-O-M-E on the other. And on his face, just beneath his left eye, a dagger with a drop of blood. "The idea was to create this portrait of someone that was basically like a melting pot of masculine cliches," says the actor, whose character, Luke, is a stunt motorcyclist in a traveling carnival.

A federal judge handed down a 131/2-year sentence for a Pennsauken man who, while on release after robbing a bank, robbed three more. Richard B. Jones, 38, pleaded guilty to robbing a Sovereign Bank in Pennsauken on Nov. 28, 2011. He also admitted robbing the same bank and a PNC Bank, also in Pennsauken, that month. Jones was on federal supervised release at that time for a Rhode Island bank robbery he committed in 2006. Jones was sentenced to 151 months in prison for the new robberies and 24 months for violating release.

The really smart bank robbers might just have one thing in common - they don't commute in taxis from their heists. At 11:09 a.m. Thursday, Lower Providence Township police went to the First Niagara Bank on Egypt Road in the township's Audubon section in response to a report of a robbery in progress. Bank employees told police that a man approached a teller's window and showed a gun as he demanded money. The suspect left before police arrived. Plymouth Township and Montgomery Township police were looking into similar recent robberies, including one Monday at the PNC Bank on Chemical Road.

The bandit wasn't picky. On September 17, 2009, he struck the TD Bank at 2520 Grant Avenue. "Sweetheart, this is what you're going to do," he told the teller, "you're going to give me all the money in the top drawer. " He kept his hand hidden in his pocket so she couldn't see what he was holding. "Give me everything," he demanded. "The $2 bills, too. " She complied. Along with "everything," she also included an unexpected bonus. As he fled through a nearby parking lot, a dye pack inside his bag of booty exploded.

An alert Delaware County teller noticed the suspect in a number of bank robberies was the same man who had applied for a loan at their institution. Jermaine Coleman, 30, of the 5800 block of Warrington Ave., Philadelphia, is wanted for allegedly robbing three local banks between March 7 and March 11, police said. "He is considered armed and dangerous," said Michael Chitwood, Upper Darby's superintendent of police. Coleman handed over notes during the robbery that threatened to kill employees and blow up the banks, Chitwood added.

A Philadelphia man suspected as the serial bandit responsible for nine bank robberies this month has been caught, the FBI said Thursday. Tarik Hooks of the 6100 block of Spruce Street was arrested last Friday and charged Thursday with nine counts of bank robbery. An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court says Hooks confessed to those robberies and to a 10th, in Wilmington. Hooks, 35, is accused of being the most prolific and nettlesome robber in an unusual string of bank heists this year.

Philadelphia has never really been a bank-robbery town. Some cities have that reputation, deserved or not. Think Los Angeles, home to spectacularly violent heists, a region that once logged 2,600 bank robberies in a year. Philadelphia bandits are not known for flash or firepower, even smarts. Many are drug addicts, clumsily picking targets in their own neighborhoods, hiding under a cap or hoodie, and brandishing nothing more than a nasty note. Most get caught. Still, last week was an unusually busy stretch in an unusually busy season for unauthorized withdrawals.

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office and Bellmawr Police Department reported a bank robbery Saturday, in which officials say a suspect entered the Fulton Bank on Browning Road in Bellmawr at 9:22 a.m., and passed a teller a note demanding cash. He then fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police described the suspect as a black or Hispanic male, with a light complexion and about 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-10 in height, with facial hair a medium build. He was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

A homeless man has been arrested and charged with robbing a Bensalem Township bank on Friday, police said Monday. Officials said Maurice Ray, 22, put up a fight, prompting police to use a Taser on him. According to police, Ray entered the Fulton Bank at 2100 Street Road about 4:55 p.m. Friday and handed a teller a note, demanding money and saying he had a gun. He fled behind some nearby homes, discarding some of his clothing along the...

A Willingboro woman was arrested Friday and charged in connection with two recent South Jersey bank robberies. Aquamena Hawthorne, 36, may also be responsible for two more, authorities said. License-plate tracing technology was used to track her car to North Camden at least 40 times since June 26, when two banks were robbed, authorities said. They said the car entered North Camden again after a Wells Fargo Bank on Kings Highway in Cherry Hill was robbed Friday morning. In that case, and in the June 26 robbery of a Susquehanna Bank in Audubon, officials said, the suspect passed a note to a teller demanding money and indicating that a gun was present.