A man has been charged with robbing four banks in Northwest Philadelphia.
Frank Roccia, dubbed the “Roxborough Robber,” confessed to robbing the Continental Bank at 7133 Ridge Avenue on August 30, the Wells Fargo Bank at 6918 Ridge Avenue on September 1, the Citizens Bank at 6052 Ridge Avenue on September 3 and the TD Bank on 4020 City Avenue on September 7.
Roccia was taken into custody last Friday when employees at the Citizens Bank on the 8300 block of Ridge Avenue, having seen media coverage of the robberies, called police to report that a suspicious man they believed to be the serial robber had just left the branch.
Officers canvassed the area and arrested Roccia at Lare Road and Port Royal Avenue in Roxborough.
The Philadelphia Police Department Crime Lab recovered a fingerprint from the demand note used in the September 1 robbery and matched it to Roccia. Two witnesses from the August 30 robbery also picked Roccia out of a photo array.
According to the arrest affidavit, Roccia presented demand notes in the first two robberies that stated he had taken pictures of the tellers and sent them to a friend, who would harm them if they included dye packs in the proceeds. In all of the demand notes, he said that he had a gun and warned tellers not to give him dye packs.
Roccia made away with about $1,348 from Continental Bank, $703 from Wells Fargo Bank, $2,891 from Citizens Bank and $500 from TD Bank.
He is currently in FBI custody.
