Nov. 29, 2021 By Michael Dorgan
Police are looking for two men wanted for carrying out up to a dozen bank robberies throughout western Queens over the past month.
The alleged thieves hit banks in Astoria, Long Island City, Maspeth, Corona, Flushing, Middle Village and East Elmhurst – and made off with at least $17,800 cash, police said.
In each incident, one of the suspects entered a bank and handed a note to a teller before demanding money. Once the teller complied, the suspect grabbed the money and fled the scene.
In some cases, the suspects used a gray Toyota Corolla as a getaway car. There were no injuries and no weapons displayed in any of the reported incidents, police said.
The first robbery allegedly took place on Nov. 8 at around 4:10 p.m. when the thieves stole nearly $3,000 from a Capital One Bank branch located at 30-17 Broadway in Astoria.
Four days later, at around 3:45 p.m., a suspect took an undetermined amount of money from a Chase Bank branch located just blocks away at 38-18 Broadway.
The pattern continued on Nov. 15 when the pair hit a Santander Bank branch located at 22-59 31st St. in Astoria and made off with $965.
On Nov. 17, the perpetrators stole around $340 from the Alma Bank branch located at 28-20 Ditmars Boulevard.
The following day the bandits targeted two banks. They hit the Citibank branch located at 38-18 Queens Boulevard at around 11:30 a.m. and took $500—before taking their biggest heist four hours later when they stole $5,250 from a Valley Bank branch located at 64-01 Grand Avenue in Maspeth.
The crime spree continued on Nov. 20 when $800 was taken from the Queens County Savings Bank branch located at 51-13 108th Street in Corona.
On Nov. 24, the pair again targeted two separate banks in one day. The suspects held up the Apple Bank branch at 43-73 Kissena Boulevard in Flushing, at 9:40 a.m. and took $210. At 4:05 p.m., they robbed Queens County Savings Bank on 108th Street in Corona – the same bank they had targeted four days earlier—and got away with $1,500.
Two days later, at around 10:40 a.m., the suspects stole around $2,100 from a Santander Bank branch located at 83-20 Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing.
Later that day they attempted to rob the Citibank branch located at 78-09 Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village, but the teller at the bank refused to hand over the cash. The suspect in this incident left the scene empty-handed.
The latest bank robbery took place Saturday when the suspects took $3,150 from the Santander Bank branch located at 75-81 31st Avenue in East Elmhurst.
Police released photos of the suspects wanted for questioning.
One of the suspects is described as being a light-skinned male in his mid-30’s, with black hair and facial hair.
The other suspect is described as being light-skinned.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.