By Tom Tracy
A gray-haired, 55-year-old alleged heroin addict was arrested Saturday for a series of area bank robberies.Police said that Peter Donnell was taken into custody on February 11 – just two days after his face was plastered in every newspaper and aired on every radio station in the city.Cops linked Donnell to a string of bank robberies, as well as the robbery of a Fabco shoe store on Kings Highway between January 4 and February 3, according to officials from the NYPD’s Major Case Squad.Sources alleged that Donnell committed the robberies to fuel his heroin habit.In each case, he would pass a note to a teller, claiming to have a gun and demanding money, police alleged.“Don’t be stupid,” he would write, according to police.Donnell was such a slave to his routine that he even used a note when he robbed the Fabco store at 1410 Kings Highway, alleged police.Officials alleged that Donnell entered the store at 5:30 p.m. on February 3 and showed a worker a note, as if he were robbing a bank teller, and fled the scene with $850 in receipts, said officials.Investigators alleged that Donnell is also responsible for robbing the Commerce Bank at 1122 Kings Highway at 11:30 a.m. on January 27, where he passed a pink note to the teller, demanding everything from her cash drawer.Donnell fled the bank with just over $300, alleged officials.All told, police believe that Donnell is allegedly the same man who committed at least three other bank robberies on Avenue U and Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York.Donnell reportedly hit two locations, the HSBC Bank at 1330 Pennsylvania Avenue and the North Fork Bank at 1618 Avenue U, on the morning of January 17. Cops later connected him to a robbery at the Commerce Bank at 1602 Avenue U on January 4, officials said.In each case, Donnell claimed that he had a gun and threatened to become violent if the tellers didn’t hand over the money in the till, police alleged.While it was unclear how much was taken from the HSBC Bank, officials said that the suspect took $1900 from the North Fork bank and $2,300 from the robbery earlier in the month.Police alleged that Donnell always tried to cover his mane of grey hair with a knit cap, but his steely blue eyes and rugged build were unmistakable.Donnell was charged with multiple counts of robbery.
