Teaneck Resident, 69, Charged With Robbing Bank Right Down The Street

Leo Richard Jones Jr., 69, was dressed all in black when he passed a note "threatening bodily injury" to a teller at the Chase Bank on Cedar Lane shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, Teaneck Deputy Police Chief Andrew McGurr said.

No weapon was shown, the deputy chief said.

A bank employee dialed 911 as Jones ran up the street toward the Cedar Lane garden apartment complex where he lives (at right in photo above), McGurr said.

Two Bergen County sheriff's K9 units joined township police and colleagues from surrounding towns as a perimeter was established and a manhunt began, the deputy chief said.

It all ended pretty quickly.

Teaneck Police Officer Percy West immediately recognized Jones from bank surveillance video, McGurr said.

The 6-foot-4-inch, 162-pound defendant has a mostly drug-related criminal history that spans decades. Arrests have involved simple assault, writing bad checks and violating probation out of Teaneck and surrounding towns, records show.

Police canvassed the area and retrieved security footage from the apartment complex that showed Jones leaving and then re-entering his building around the time of the robbery, the deputy chief said.

Moments later, Jones casually emerged from his apartment wearing different clothing, McGurr said.

He was immediately seized by detectives.

Jones consented to a search of his apartment, where the investigators found the cash and the clothes he wore during the holdup, McGurr said.

Jones remained held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail, charged with robbery through a threat or fear of bodily injury and theft. A first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack was being scheduled."The FBI responded and is working with our detectives on the investigation," McGurr noted.

The deputy chief also thanked the bureau's Newark Field Office, as well as the Bergen County Sheriff's Office, which provided both the tracking dogs and the Bureau of Criminal Identification, which collected evidence.

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