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Ryan Keith Healy has been charged with robbing the Bank of America branch on Wyoming Avenue, Kingston, on Feb. 4. At right is Kingston police Detective Thomas Paratore. Police credit a good surveillance video for helping them find the suspect, who was found standing on state Route 315 near a motel. He was arraigned and held in prison.
Clark Van Orden/The Times Leader
KINGSTON – A clear surveillance video of a bank robbery on Feb. 4 helped police identify the alleged thief, Ryan Keith Healy, said Kingston police Capt. John Jorda.
Recognizing Healy, 31, in the video recording inside the Bank of America branch on Wyoming Avenue was easy. Next came what investigators believed would be a tireless pursuit.
“On Monday, members of the Kingston Police Department got together and formulated a plan where we were going to be checking local hotels,” Jorda said. “We believed he was staying at local hotels since the robbery.”
Later that afternoon, Jorda said two Kingston police detectives checking motels in the townships of Wilkes-Barre and Plains spotted Healy, address listed as homeless, standing on state Route 315 near a motel.
“He was taken into custody without incident and lodged in the Luzerne County prison on a probation detainer,” Jorda said.
Healy was charged Friday in the robbery at the Bank of America Branch. He was arraigned by District Judge Paul Roberts on four counts of robbery, and unrelated counts of retail theft and receiving stolen property.
Healy was remanded to the county prison for lack of $85,000 total bail. During the brief hearing, Healy said he has a heroin addiction.
Police alleged Healy entered the bank and passed a handwritten note to a teller. The note stated, “Give me the $. Have Gun. Will use it!!! Be Quiet,” according to the criminal complaint.
Police said there were three customers and six employees inside the bank during the robbery.
After his capture, Healy admitted to robbing the bank and that he never had a firearm, the criminal complaint says.
In unrelated cases, Avoca police charged Healy with a home burglary in the 700 block of Main Street in December, where he allegedly stole electronics and a checkbook.
Healy was further charged by Kingston police with allegedly stealing a laptop computer from a Market Street business on Dec. 28, and a clarinet from a business on East Union Street on Nov. 11, according to the criminal complaints.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Feb. 18 before District Judge Fred Pierantoni in Pittston on the charges filed by Avoca police and on Feb. 23 on the bank robbery charges by Kingston police.
First reported at
11:08 a.m.
timesleader.com
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