A Colts Neck man has been arrested and charged with committing a series of three bank robberies in local municipalities over the course of a little more than a month, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced on Dec. 20.
Conor Kavanagh, 29, is charged with three counts of first degree armed robbery, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
An investigation was initiated immediately after the first bank robbery, which took place shortly after 1:15 p.m. Nov. 13 at the PNC Bank inside a Stop & Shop supermarket on Route 36 in Keyport.
At that time, a man later identified as Kavanagh approached a teller window, passed over a note indicating he was in possession of a weapon and made off with a quantity of cash, leaving the scene in a green Toyota pickup truck, according to the press release.
At approximately 4 p.m. Dec. 14, a bank robbery occurred at the Wells Fargo branch on Newman Springs Road in the Lincroft section of Middletown.
That bank robbery was committed in identical fashion to the earlier one in Keyport, with the suspect wearing similar clothing, and he left the scene in a green Toyota pickup truck, according to the press release.
Three days later, on Dec. 17, the Wells Fargo branch on Route 36 in Eatontown was robbed. Again, a suspect passed a note demanding money, indicating he was in possession of a weapon.
Following the bank robbery in Middletown, detectives from the Middletown Police Department developed information that led to Kavanagh being identified as a
potential suspect.
After the bank robbery in Eatontown, Middletown detectives and assisting members of the FBI observed Kavanagh driving a green pickup truck that matched the description of the vehicle used in the earlier bank robberies and placed him under arrest for unrelated charges, according to the press release.
Detectives searched the pickup truck and located proceeds from the Eatontown
bank robbery and the clothing the suspect was seen wearing on surveillance footage.
They also located information pertaining to a storage unit in Shrewsbury, and a search
of that location revealed proceeds from the Keyport and Middletown bank robberies.
Additionally, a search of the cell phone Kavanagh was using contained evidence
of online searches for local bank branches, according to the press release.
Kavanagh was placed in the Monmouth County jail, Freehold Township, pending a first appearance and detention hearing, to take place in state Superior Court, Freehold.
The prosecutor’s office thanked its partners with the Eatontown, Keyport and Middletown police departments, as well as members of the FBI’s Newark office, for their assistance in this investigation, according to the press release.
Convictions on first degree criminal charges are commonly punishable by terms
of 10 to 20 years in state prison, according to the press release.
