Police Make Arrests In Fleet Bank Robbery Case

By Andrew Gorosko

The Norwalk man who police believe robbed Fleet Bank on Queen Street March 13 was arraigned this week in Danbury Superior Court.

Eric Duffey, 28, of 91/2  Godfrey Street, Norwalk, was presented before Judge Patrick Carroll March 20 on a charge of conspiracy to commit third-degree robbery. Judge Carroll set Duffey’s bond at $50,000. Duffey was being held for a March 27 court appearance to enter a plea in the case.

Police had arrested Duffey the night of March 17 in Norwalk.

Earlier that day, the man who police believe drove the getaway car from the bank robbery was arraigned in court before Judge Gary White.

Police had arrested the driver, William Caputo, 44, of 104 Mathers Avenue, Hartford, late on the night of March 16 on charges of third-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit third-degree robbery. Caputo reportedly posted a $35,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court March 24 to enter a plea.

Police are still seeking a third man who was a passenger in the Volkswagen Rabbit used in the bank robbery.

Town police, state police, and FBI agents continue to investigate the bank robbery, which was the first theft from a local bank since a 1905 bank burglary.

According to Newtown police arrest warrant affidavits: Duffey, who was wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt when he entered the bank about 10:15 am March 13, approached a teller and displayed a handwritten note which stated, “Hand me your $20’s, $50’s, and $100’s, or else…” The bank teller handed Duffey an amount of money which the bank later determined to be $9,480. The teller triggered a silent alarm alerting police of the robbery. There were no injuries in the incident.

On arriving at the bank at 10:19 am, “investigators discovered the bank had been robbed by a lone white male with blond hair who fled the bank on foot.”

 Eyewitnesses had seen Duffey flee the bank to a corner of the Newtown Shopping Village parking lot. An eyewitness later saw the silver gray Volkswagen emerge from behind a building where Duffey had fled. The car then drove off from the shopping center.

While responding to the bank robbery, police officer Robert Koetsch saw what police would later learn was the getaway car headed southbound on Queen Street, being driven by a white man with dark hair and a mustache, who was apparently Caputo.

A witness told police officer Daniel Cacace that the Volkswagen containing three men – two whites and a black – had been at the Amoco gas station on Church Hill Road, about a mile away, just before the bank robbery.

Police Sergeant James Mooney learned that the men had paid $1 in pennies to buy gasoline and then left the gas station. Mooney seized the videotape from the gas station’s video surveillance camera for photographic evidence. From the surveillance videotape, police obtained still photos of the three men and the Volkswagen.

According to the arrest warrant affidavits, on March 16 Detective Robert Tvardzik received a telephone call from a female who said her father, who is a narcotics addict, knew the identity of the person responsible for the Fleet Bank robbery. The female told police where her father could be found in Hartford.

While police were talking to that man in a Hartford apartment, a Volkswagen matching the description of the vehicle used in the crime drove by.

Police officer Jason Frank had Hartford police stop the Volkswagen and officer Frank observed the driver, recognizing him from the images taken from the gas station’s surveillance videotape.

Caputo voluntarily accompanied police to the Hartford police station and allowed them to search the Volkswagen, according to the court documents.

“Caputo confessed to Detective [Joe] Jowdy [that] he and a white male he knows only as ‘Eric’ [Duffey] and a black male he knows only as ‘John’ were all patients at a substance abuse facility in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, Connecticut, known as Cornerstone of Eagle Hill, [and] that they were released from the facility on March 13 at approximately 10 am.” Caputo told police he drove the Volkswagen to the Amoco station and put in $1 worth of gasoline, paying for it with pennies.

“From the Amoco station, Caputo drove to Fleet Bank because, he stated, ‘Eric needed to cash a check,’” according to the court documents.

Caputo told police he dropped off Eric, parked near the bank, and waited for him to return. The third man remained in the car with Caputo while Duffey was in the bank.

Duffey then came out of the bank, ran up to the car, and got into it.

“Caputo states he asked Eric if he cashed the check. Eric told him ‘Yes, just drive.’”

Caputo told police that Eric then began pulling money out of his sweatshirt.

“Caputo states he said, ‘I can’t be in this,’ to which Eric responded, ‘If you turn on me, I’ll kill you.’”

Caputo then drove the Volkswagen to Hartford, according to the court papers.

 While in Hartford, Eric gave him $500 in the form of $50s and $20s, Caputo told police.

 Caputo, without admitting any prior knowledge of the bank robbery, told police he fears Eric because he knows about Eric’s entering the bank and stealing the money.

  Caputo told police Duffey gave the third man $100 before the third man was picked up by his girlfriend in Hartford March 13. Police are still seeking the third man.

Before he left the Newtown police station March 17 for his court arraignment, Caputo looked at a police flyer bearing pictures of himself and the two others involved in the robbery and told police that Duffey was the person who robbed the bank. Caputo also identified the black male who remained in the Volkswagen, according to the arrest warrant affidavits.

The court documents state that while he was at the Eagle Hill drug treatment center on an unrelated matter March 13, police officer Dominick Salvatore learned that the drug treatment center had released Duffey that morning.

The arrest warrant affidavits make no mention of Duffey showing a weapon while he was in Fleet Bank.

All three men involved in the robbery reportedly have extensive criminal records.

Town police said that on March 17 at 7:26 pm they, state police, and Norwalk police went to Duffey’s residence in Norwalk, with a Danbury Superior Court arrest warrant, and found Duffey and took him into custody without incident. Police held Duffey on a $50,000 bond in the Newtown police station lockup until his March 21 court arraignment.

After receiving the informant’s tip, Newtown police went to Hartford March 16, where they were aided by state police and Hartford police in arresting Caputo.

After the March 13 robbery, the bank locked its doors to the public for the remainder of the business day, as town, state, and federal law enforcement personnel investigated the crime scene. Inside the bank, investigators interviewed witnesses, took photographs, dusted for fingerprints, drew sketch maps, and reviewed the surveillance videotapes made by bank security cameras.

During the height of the inquiry, about 15 town, state, and federal investigators were involved in the case.

The bank reopened the following day.