Donald Myer
By Karen Zautyk
Observer Correspondent
KEARNY –
Just a bit more than two weeks after the holdup, Kearny police have arrested the suspect in the Christmas Eve robbery of a local bank.
Taken into custody Friday afternoon at his Newark home was Donald Myer, 56, wanted in the heist of the Chase Bank at Kearny and Johnston Aves.
Myer reportedly is a former Kearny resident.
Currently, Myer is a resident of the Hudson County Jail, where he was being held on $250,000 bail, with no 10% option.
Police said Myer, wearing a hoodie and skullcap, had entered the bank at 9:10 a.m., Dec. 24, shortly after it opened, and handed a female teller a note reading: “I have a gun. Don’t be stupid. Count 3,000 and put it in an envelope.”
According to Police Chief John Dowie, “He said he had a weapon but didn’t display it.”
When the bandit demanded the money in $50 bills, he was directed to another teller’s window where that denomination was available, Dowie said.
With the $3,000 tucked in an envelope, the man fled and was last seen running west on Johnston.
Last seen, that is, until Friday around 3 p.m., when Kearny police, along with FBI agents, showed up at Myer’s Brookdale Ave. home in the Vailsburg section of Newark, authorities reported.
The arresting officers from the KPD were Det. Sgt. Robert Maguire and Detectives Mike Gonzalez, Michael Farinola and Marc McCaffrey. The suspect was taken into custody without incident.
Reportedly, neither a gun nor any of the $3,000 was recovered Friday.
According to police, the suspect has a “lengthy criminal history,” including an arrest for a 2007 bank robbery in Jersey City. Myer reportedly served three years in jail in connection with that crime.
Last week’s arrest was the result of the ongoing investigation by KPD Dets. John Plaugic, Gonzalez and Maguire.
Police said Myer was identified through video surveillance tapes, as well as by an eyewitness and a veteran KPD member, P.O. Patrick Sawyer.
