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Philip N. McGrantham, 69, made a bogus 911 call of a man with a gun in the parking lot of a Route 23 Target “as a ruse to divert the attention of law enforcement” while he robbed the Wells Fargo bank up the road last Thursday, authorities said Tuesday.
Wayne detectives -- with help from the FBI and the Passaic County Sheriff's Office – captured McGrantham on Monday at the corner of Main Street and Lincoln Avenue as he returned home.
He was driving a rented Nissan Altima that a law enforcement source told Daily Voice was used hours earlier in the holdup of a TD Bank branch on Valley Avenue.
Authorities didn’t disclose how much cash McGrantham allegedly got after claiming to have a weapon and explosives and demanding $20,000.
Daily Voice reported immediately after the arrest that McGrantham was suspected in the Wells Fargo robbery last week in Pompton Plains.
The robber in that holdup wore what witnesses said appeared to be a painted-on or fake beard, a black baseball cap and a hoodie -- similar to Monday's incident at the Wayne bank.
“After receiving a sum of cash, McGrantham then fled the scene in a red colored Hyundai SUV,” Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp, Acting Chief of Investigations Christoph Kimker, and Pequannock Township Police Chief Brian C. Spring said in a joint release on Tuesday.
McGrantham remained held in the Passaic County Jail, charged with the Wayne and Pequannock robberies. Morris County authorities also charged him with causing a false public alarm for the alleged 911 call.
The prosecutor cited the involvement of several law enforcement agencies in McGrantham’s identification and capture – among them, his Major Crimes Unit, the Morris County sheriff’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit, Pequannock and Wayne police and the FBI.
ALSO SEE: GOTCHA! Accused Wayne Bank Robber, 69, Captured In Little Falls, Suspected In Pequannock Holdup
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