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Man Robs Banks After Leaving Prison


Steff

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TARENTUM, Pa. - A man was charged with robbing two banks less than one day after getting out of prison for a botched 2001 convenience store robbery in which he held a can of ravioli under his shirt to simulate a gun, police said.

 

Thomas Glenn Rokosky, 28, was arrested Tuesday morning a few minutes after someone robbed the First Commonwealth Bank in Tarentum, about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

 

Police said an alarm system sent a distress call directly to a dispatch center and helped them quickly locate Rokosky, of Tarentum, and his vehicle, which matched witness descriptions. Police said he also had a note demanding money from a teller.

 

Simple arithmetic led police to charge Rokosky with another robbery the day before.

 

Rokosky got out of prison on Monday and had just $12 when he was released, officials at the State Correctional Institution-Cresson told police. When he was arrested, Rokosky was carrying nearly $4,300, police said. The person who robbed the Tarentum bank got away with $2,500.

 

Investigators then found out that another First Commonwealth Bank branch was robbed Monday afternoon in Johnstown, not far from the prison.

 

Rokosky told police about the Johnstown robbery when they asked about it, saying that he paid a cab driver $100 to turn off his meter and drive him to Tarentum, about 65 miles away. Rokosky was supposed to meet with his parole officer Monday but "blew him off," Tarentum police chief Bill Vakulick said.

 

Rokosky was still in jail Wednesday.

 

Police say he has a criminal record dating to 1998, including four robberies or attempts in the Tarentum area that he pleaded guilty to in 2002.

 

In one attempt, Rokosky threatened an unwitting clerk at a corner store in Natrona with a ravioli can. Rokosky ran away when the clerk was too afraid to open a cash register drawer.

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