Second bank robbery in Callicoon

By TOM KANE

CALLICOON, NY — At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, November 4, a man wearing a ski mask entered a branch of the First National Bank of Jeffersonville branch located on Route 17B and walked away with an undisclosed amount of money.

It was the second bank robbery in the hamlet in one week.

And the thief got away this time. At the first robbery a week ago, two crooks were nabbed in their car, heading for Connecticut where they lived, after robbing the Bank of America branch in the hamlet. Their car was described by a local resident who was suspicious of their movements.

In Wednesday’s heist, after receiving the money from the teller, whom he threatened with what appeared to be a handgun, the perpetrator exited the bank and got into an older model, light blue Pontiac with its license plate covered by a plastic bag, according to state police.

The car headed east on Route 17B.

“We have no other information about the robbery and are pursuing the perpetrators intensely,” said a state police spokesperson.

A teller at the bank who has a heart condition collapsed and was taken to a hospital in Westchester, where she was in critical but stable condition.

A resident of Callicoon commented that robberies always proliferate in depressed economic times. He recalled that before and during the Great Depression, a robber named Willie Sutton held up over 100 banks in the ’20s and ’30s. He recalled the story that when asked by a reporter why he robbed so many banks, Sutton said, “Because that’s where the money is.”

Anyone with information on this latest robbery should call NYS police at 845/292-6601.