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Eddy Cruz, 42, also admitted during a plea hearing in U.S. District Court in Trenton that he robbed a PNC Bank branch in Jackson Township on Christmas Eve 2013
Cruz said he robbed a TD Bank branch in Fort Lee on Feb. 13, 2017 and another in Hasbrouck Heights on Feb. 18, 2017, wearing a mask to disguise his identity both times and handing the tellers notes demanding cash.
Cruz is also charged with a bank robbery in Scarsdale, N.Y.
He was about to hit an Englewood bank on Feb. 24, 2017 when a team of investigators moved in and arrested him without incident, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
The team followed him that day to Englewood from a Manhattan location, Carpenito said.
Cruz parked his red 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage near the Demarest Avenue TD Bank just before noon -- once again while wearing the disguise -- when his captors moved in.
In his car, federal agents found latex gloves, a scarf, sunglasses, and the tight-fitting mask – along with a handwritten note demanding money.
Cruz was eventually taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center for a medical screening before being committed to the Bergen County Jail. The Mitsubishi was impounded.
Carpenito credited the FBI offices in New Jersey and New York; the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office; and police departments in Fort Lee, Hasbrouck Heights, Paramus, and Roxbury, as well as those in Greenburg, Mount Pleasant and Yonkers, N.Y., along with the NYPD – all of whom participated in the Robbery Task Force that took down Cruz.
Handing the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua L. Haber of Fishman’s General Crimes Unit in Newark.
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