By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
A note-passing robber stole $3,200 from the North Fork Bank branch on Northern and Bell boulevards Monday morning, police said.
No one was hurt in the 11 a.m. robbery during which a white or Hispanic man in his mid-20’s passed a threatening note to a teller, said Officer Dean Mazzaglia of the 111th Precinct.
Mazzaglia said the man got away with $3,200 before fleeing north on Bell. The robber was wearing a red and white baseball cap and a black three-quarter length pea coat, said Capt. Thomas Pilkington, commander of the 111th.
Police fanned out along Bell Boulevard and side streets up to 26th Avenue, but no arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon, said Pilkington.
At least one police helicopter was used in the search, which included the Bayside Long Island Rail Road station and stores along Bell Boulevard.
The North Fork branch next to the train station was robbed of about $3,000 in April 2003, also by a man who passed a note to a teller.
Judy Limpert, manager of that branch as well as the one robbed Monday, said the Northern Boulevard branch had never been robbed before.
Another bank robbery in Bayside occurred Wednesday morning at the Citibank branch at 39-01 Bell Blvd., according to the Breaking News Network, a service that monitors police scanner activity.
The network reported that police were looking for a white man about 37 years old who passed a note. The Chase bank on 43rd Avenue and Bell Boulevard was robbed Dec. 26.
Bank robberies have skyrocketed citywide in recent years. Mayor Michael Bloomberg chided bank executives last year for what he said were their lax security policies.
