A sizable law enforcement presence on Palm Beach’s South End June 11 was the result of a multi-city search for a man believed to have robbed a bank in Boynton Beach using a stolen Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office vehicle, court records show.
Boynton Beach police arrested the 59-year-old man on felony charges of robbery, grand theft, vehicle theft and burglary of an unoccupied conveyance, and a misdemeanor charge of operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, according to court records. He remained at the Palm Beach County Jail on June 16 with his bail set at $235,000, jail records show.
According to an arrest report, the man first took a White Ford Transit Van that belongs to PBSO from the 5000 block of Lake Worth Road in Greenacres just after noon on June 11.
About 20 minutes later, a man matching the description of the person wanted for stealing the van stole money from a Chase Bank on North Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach, the arrest report said.
In surveillance footage from the robbery, the man was seen pulling up to the bank in the stolen Ford van and entering the Chase branch with a white garbage bag, the report said. After ordering two bank tellers to put a combined $10,634 in the bag, he left the area in the van, the arrest report said.
PBSO deputies found the man, still in the stolen van, about an hour later in the 2500 block of South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, the report said.
When PBSO deputies took the man into custody, he was wearing the same clothes from the Chase Bank surveillance footage and his pants were “stuffed with cash,” the arrest report said.
The man “provided a full confession,” Boynton Beach police said on social media.
According to court records, the man is represented by the Palm Beach County Public Defender’s Office, which as a policy does not comment on open cases.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Man arrested in Palm Beach stole PBSO van, robbed bank, police say
Reporting by Kristina Webb, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kristina Webb, Palm Beach Daily News | USA TODAY Network
