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Joseph Pennello
UPDATE: A notorious street thug who walked into the wrong Bergen County police station to confess to a string of bank robberies after thinking he was in the same town as his last holdup was sentenced today to eight years in prison. READ MORE….
The government wasted little time securing a plea deal, and today Pennello admitted in federal court to five holdups in three counties, which netted him more than $18,000.
Pennello, a 46-year-old former plumber who most recently lived in the Morris County town of Washington, first made headlines in 1990, when he robbed $400 from four Bergen County stores while using taxi cabs parked around corners as his getaway cars.
He was living in a Moonachie trailer park at the time with his girlfriend, Jaclyn Feeney, who admittedly shared his drug addiction.
Both were later convicted in federal court in connection with a string of Bergen-area bank robberies — earning them the nickname in law enforcement circles of “Bonnie and Clyde on heroin.”
This time, Pennello admitted to holdups from January through early March in Hackensack, Rutherford, Washington, Scotch Plains and Hackettstown.
His final job was at the Wells Fargo branch in the center of Rutherford’s business district just before noon March 10. The FBI said he made off with his smallest haul in the spree: $1,099.
Pennello actually thought he was in Rutherford when he turned himself in days later, the FBI said.
“He said he had an attack of conscience,” Rutherford Detective Lt. Patrick Feliciano told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Maybe he saw the media coverage with his picture and decided [that] sooner or later we were going to catch him.”
His biggest haul, $8,531, was from a Chase branch in Hackettstown on Feb. 18, according to a complaint filed with U.S. District Court in Newark.
A week earlier, it says, Pennello made off with $3,335 from the PNC Bank on Route 17 South in Hackensack, after passing a note that said: “This is a robbery. No alarms. No dye-packs. No tracers. No one gets hurts [sic].”
U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton set an August 4 sentencing date. Pennello remains in federal custody until then.
He already has spent nine years in state and federal prison for assorted holdups and parole violations, beginning in 1994.
Pennello was on parole after serving five years for armed robbery when he and Feeney knocked over banks in Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights, and Union City in 1996 — netting more than $10,000 to feed their heroin habits.
They were caught after a car wash owner in Union City chased them — running red lights to Route 3 west and, eventually into Moonachie, where a patrol officer pulled both cars over.
PENNELLO’S HAULS:
PNC Bank; Washington, N.J. $2,279
TD Bank; Scotch Plains, N.J. $2,810
PNC Bank; Hackensack, N.J. 3,335
Chase Bank; Hackettstown, N.J. $8,531
Wells Fargo Bank; Rutherford, N.J. $1,099
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