By Nathan Duke
A 28−year−old Bayside man foiled a bank robbery on Utopia Parkway last week after he chased and then tackled the suspected culprit.
Michael Taormina says he was about to walk into a Capital One bank on Utopia Parkway in Bayside last Thursday when he discovered that the bank was being robbed.
Taormina, who works for a sanitation company that picks up trash for the bank, said he waited until the man left the bank, pursued him on foot and eventually confronted him.
“Everybody’s kind of mad at me,” Taormina said. “They thought I shouldn’t have gone after him. But he was taking money that people had been working for all week. I’ve been without work before, but I never stole from others.”
Brooklyn resident George Greavu, 42, was arrested in the incident and arraigned Friday before Queens Criminal Court Judge Ira Margulis, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. His bail was set at $150,000 and he was scheduled to return to court Dec. 19, the DA said.
Greavu is accused of slipping a note to a teller at the bank, at 19−01 Utopia Parkway, which read, “I don’t want to hurt anyone but if you don’t cooperate, I will spray you in the face with acid. All your cash now,” the DA said.
He then allegedly stuck a tube through the teller’s window and said, “This is not a joke,” Brown said.
Taormina said he had gone to the bank around 6 p.m. to deposit a check. But as he began to enter the building a woman told him to leave because the bank was being robbed.
He said he was waiting outside the building when the suspect walked out. Taormina said he followed him on Utopia Parkway toward Francis Lewis Boulevard, but the man turned around and saw that he was being trailed.
The suspect then jumped a fence and Taormina said he followed him and cornered him. He said Greavu threw a bag of money at him and told him to take it.
Taormina said he then wrestled Greavu to the ground and a retired police officer who had witnessed the scene at the bank arrived and called the police.
“He was a pretty big guy,” Taormina said of the suspect. “He tried to fight back but was pretty winded.”
Taormina sat on Greavu until the police arrived. Police allegedly retrieved $4,000 from the defendant, the DA said.
Taormina said he is in the midst of making plans to get married next year.
“My family told me, ‘We could have been going to a funeral rather than a wedding,’ ” he said.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e−mail at nduke@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 156.
