TEANECK ROBBERY SUSPECT HAD BEEN ON PAROLE 3 DAYS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B03

A Jersey City man who robbed a Teaneck savings and loan twice in a two-month period committed the first crime three days after he had been paroled for robbing another bank, authorities said.
Alfred N. Ferguson, 34, was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Newark with one count of robbery, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Brown said. On Tuesday he jumped over the counter at Oritani Savings and Loan at 560 Cedar Lane and took about $5,000 from tellers drawers, police said.
Ferguson, being held without bail in the Union County Jail in Elizabeth, also is expected to be charged with the Aug. 1 robbery of the savings and loan, in which $10,000 was taken, and with the July 31 attempted robbery of the United Jersey Bank branch at 21 Park Place in Englewood, authorities said.
After his capture following the robbery Tuesday, Ferguson confessed to the two robberies of the savings and loan and to the attempted robbery at the Englewood bank, in which his note demanding money was refused, police said.
That attempt occurred two days after Ferguson was released from the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Institution in Bordentown. He had been paroled after serving three years of an eight-year term for robbing a Jersey City bank in 1988, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Corrections Department said.
Teaneck Police Detective Lt. Warren White said Ferguson walked into Oritani Savings and Loan about 2:25 p.m. Tuesday and vaulted over the bank counter including a transparent, protective barrier that was installed after he allegedly robbed the bank in the same manner two months earlier.
Sweeping past two tellers, both of whom were on hand for the first robbery, Ferguson reached into their cash drawers and took about $5,000 before running out the door, police said.
A customer in the bank ran after Ferguson as he dashed across Cedar Lane. The customer, who got into his car and drove after the suspect, saw him jump into his car and drive away. He gave upthe chase when police pulled behind Ferguson and arrested him a short time later. The customer is expected to testify as a witness.
The FBI, which had been investigating because bank robbery is a federal offense, questioned Ferguson late Tuesday and charged him under federal statutes. Also instrumental in the investigation, said FBI spokesman William Tonkin, were the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department.

Keywords: TEANECK; BANK; ROBBERY

2ND SUSPECT IN PARAMUS HEIST NABBED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B04

A 40-year-old Fairview man who was arrested Monday night in Woodbridge for credit-card fraud has been identified as the second suspect in a Jan. 16 Paramus bank robbery in which a 15-year-old Bronx boy was arrested, police said.
Leon Busiello, also known as John Rizzo, of 685 Prospect Ave., was being held in the Middlesex County Jail on Tuesday, Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said.
On Tuesday, a Paramus Municipal Court judge set $100,000 bail for Busiello on charges of bank robbery and possession of a weapon while committing the robbery, Delaney said.
Busiello gave the youth, whom police declined to identify because of his age, a note that he read to a teller at the Midland Bank in the Bergen Mall on the day of the robbery, Delaney said.
“Give me all the money, large bills, no singles, or I’ll kill everyone. I have a gun,” Delaney said the youth told the teller. Busiello, who Delaney said drove the boy and a third suspect to the mall, was standing nearby with a gun.
Busiello took most of the $8,772 that the teller handed the boy and escaped, as did the third suspect, Delaney said. A Bergen County police officer driving nearby arrested the boy, who had $1,600 in his possession, in the parking lot behind the bank.
The boy is being held in the Bergen County Juvenile Center in Paramus, awaiting a hearing on charges of bank robbery and threatening to kill people in the bank.
Busiello faces charges of fraud and illegal possession of a weapon in Middlesex County. Delaney could not provide details about the incident.

Keywords: PARAMUS; BANK; ROBBERY

TEEN AWAITING HEARING ON BANK HEIST AT MALL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A07

A 15-year-old Bronx boy faces a hearing in juvenile court on charges he robbed a Bergen Mall bank, police said.
The juvenile was holding a torn bag containing $1,600 of the $8,772 taken from Midland Bank on the mall’s lower level when two police officers arrested him outside the bank shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday, Police Chief Joseph Delaney said.
Police charged him with bank robbery and threatening to kill people at the bank.
“Give me all the money large bills, no singles or I’ll kill everyone. I have a gun,” Delaney said the youth told the teller as he slid a note to her. The youth did not have a weapon, he said.
The youth tore the bag when he pulled it through the teller’s window, and he was picking up money that was falling from the bag as he fled, Delaney said.
Bergen County Police Officer Charles Banks and Paramus Officer James Gormley arrested the youth in the bank parking lot shortly after the robbery.
A hearing on the charges against the youth, who is being held in the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center in Paramus, will probably be next week.

Keywords: PARAMUS; BANK; ROBBERY

MAN FLEEING COPS STRUCK ON RTE. 4; ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO USE FAKE CREDIT CARD AT BANK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 21, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

A man fleeing Paramus police after he tried to get $2,500 from a bank using a fake credit card was struck and badly injured Tuesday when he ran into speeding traffic on Route 4, police said.

The man, who police said was carrying only false identification, underwent surgery at Hackensack Medical Center on Tuesday evening. Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said the man’s legs were shattered and he suffered severe internal injuries when he was struck by a Mercedes-Benz in the fast lane on the westbound side.

“He could have just as easily been killed, the way he ran into the highway,” Delaney said.

“I don’t know how he ever expected to get across the highway, especially at that time, with the traffic across Route 4,” Delaney said. “He probably didn’t see the footbridge. There’s a footbridge right above him on Forest Avenue.”

The chain of events began at about 11:20 a.m. when the man tried to obtain $2,500 from First Fidelity Bank at 10 Forest Ave. with the credit card, police said.

A teller called police, whispering that she needed assistance, Delaney said, but the call was discontinued before the desk officer could ask for more information.

Thinking a bank robbery was in progress, the officer dispatched several cruisers to the bank.

Police Officer Steve Mercer, who saw the man run out of the bank as he arrived at the scene, chased him on foot to the roadway, where the man darted into the traffic, crossing two lanes before he was hit.

Police believed the man drove to the bank and were looking for a car late Tuesday, Delaney said.

Delaney said police later learned that about $4,500 had been obtained from banks in Florida with the credit card, which police said was issued to a fictitious person in Florida.

The chief said the man carried only the Florida identification, “which was obviously fraudulently manufactured,” Delaney said, adding that police would try to establish his identity through fingerprints. “Even at the hospital, when they were asking him questions relative to who he is, where he’s from, he was being extremely evasive. “

Delaney said investigation of the accident caused a backup of the busy lunchtime traffic on Route 4 for about two hours from Forest Avenue to Hackensack Avenue.

The traffic jam caused ancillary roads to River Edge and Hackensack to clog, Delaney said.

Caption: PHOTO – LINDA CATAFFO/THE RECORD – Paramus police collecting evidence around the car that struck a man fleeing from them Tuesday.