"Founded in 1893, to Promote Economy and to Protect Its Fruits."
So reads the inscription on the south wall of the stately stone Bank of America branch with the Ionic columns at the corner of Glenridge and Bloomfield avenues.
Despite that mission statement and the bank’s grand, imposing appearance, a robber demonstrated this past Tuesday that "economy’s fruits" are never completely safe, regardless of where they’re housed, according to police.
John Tagliabue was showing up to work at roughly 9:50 a.m. when he saw multiple police cars idling outside the Bank of America, two officers standing outside the bank’s entrance holding their Glock pistols. Other officers completely blocked off what might be Montclair’s busiest intersection as investigators worked to piece together what had just happened.
Tagliabue, co-owner of the Montclair Book Center, across Glenridge Avenue from the crime scene, watched as a woman he recognized from stops at the bank exited slowly, both her hands raised at head-level. Officers then escorted her to the Bloomfield Avenue side of the building, he said.
The Book Center opened late that morning, after an investigator stopped by to talk to Tagliabue and inquire whether his store had an exterior camera monitoring the street, that might have recorded the suspect’s getaway.
It was not the first time this bank had been robbed, the merchant said. A robber had struck there four or five years ago, and he was tackled by several police officers after getting roughly 50 feet from the door.
But this past Tuesday, July 15, the suspect, who pulled off the heist at about 9:47 a.m., right around when Tagliabue was arriving at the bookstore, got away.
Local police, working with the FBI, requested tips from the public and released still photos taken by the bank’s security cameras as they searched for their flamboyantly dressed suspect.
The robber entered the bank in white-rimmed sunglasses with large lenses, a black hood over his face, and what police described as "a full-length, blue-colored garment" on, stated Montclair Police Lt. James Carlucci.
He passed one of the tellers this note: "I hava a Baun In the Bag and agum I need 30,000 now hor I shouth you Plase houry now," the lieutenant stated.
The teller turned over cash — police did not say how much — and the suspect left the bank and got into the driver’s seat of a blue four-door Hyundai that turned onto nearby South Fullerton Avenue and headed south, according to authorities.
Anyone with information that could help police find the robber, who was further described as being about 6-feet 2-inches in height or taller, should call the Montclair Police Department’s Detective Bureau, 973-509-4778.
