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Travis A. Bryant, 41, of Jackson is charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree burglary, and fourth-degree possession of an imitation handgun, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago.
At approximately 9 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, members of the West Long Branch Police Department responded to the check-cashing business on Route 36non a report of a silent alarm activation.
Officers found a lone employee, who advised that a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt pulled tightly around his face and sunglasses had just robbed the store of a large quantity of cash.
It was quickly determined that the man had entered the store when no customers were present and used a ladder to access and climb through ceiling ducts in order to access a secured, employees-only area of the business where cash was stored. After falling through the ceiling, Bryant reportedly approached the store employee, indicating that he was in possession of a weapon, and ordered her into the store bathroom while he made off with her purse, cell phone, and approximately $700,000 in cash, driving away in a van, Santiago said.
An intensive, long-term investigation by members of the West Long Branch Police Department and a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) resulted in Bryant being identified as a suspect in the case, and he was arrested without incident yesterday and lodged in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution pending a first appearance and detention hearing to take place in Monmouth County Superior Court.
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