Police foil Charlestown bank robber’s bicycle getaway

Police foiled a bicycle-riding bank robber’s getaway on Saturday.

Police said John Crilley, 45, of Charlestown held up the Santander bank at 437 Rutherford Ave., where he allegedly grabbed a bank employee, said he had a gun and demanded cash.

A teller complied, giving the suspect bills packed with dye packets, and Crilley fled out the main entrance, boarded a bicycle and pedaled away, according to a police report.

The suspect was described as wearing a yellow raincoat, facemask and black gloves, police said. An officer spotted a man matching that description “ducking in and out of” an area near Essex Street and Tibbetts Town Way, according to police.

Another witness told police they saw a white man riding a bike in a yellow jacket, and said they also saw smoke – which police said in a release may have been a discharged dye packet.

Police later arrested Crilley without incident at a relative’s home on Tibbetts Town Way and matched the suspect with surveillance footage captured on scene.

Crilley faces assault and armed robbery charges, and police believe he was also the suspect in a Sept 27 robbery at a convenience store.

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