Lt. David Sacco keeps the suspected bank robber on the ground on Main Street on Friday afternoon. A device thought to be an explosive can be seen sitting on the sidewalk by the suspect's knee.View Slide Show
May 24, 12:45 a.m.
NORTH ADAMS - Residents along Main Street began returning to their homes shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday after a state police bomb squad cleared what was believed to be a pound of military-grade TNT and a detonator device.
The city's main drag was effectively shutdown for nearly 8 hours.
Using two remote control robots, the bomb squad examined and later transfered the 10-inch rectangular package of presumed explosives into a specialized containment chamber brought in from Weston. The package was to be detonated at the sand banks off Curran Highway.
Public Safety Commissioner E. John Morocco would not confirm late last night if it had been determined to be an explosive.
The package was dropped on the sidewalk in front of McClellands by the suspect after he was wrestled to the ground after a daylight bank robbery earlier in the afternoon at Hoosac Bank.
Police say the Schenectady, N.Y., man was also armed with a .380 semi-automatic handgun. It was reported later that it was actually an airgun that fires plastic pellets.
No one was hurt in the robbery although bank employees were shaken up by the incident.
The suspect's van was cordoned off in the parking lot at Big Y. Police had been awaiting a search warrant before entering the vehicle.
The van was examined by the bomb squad's robots and several boxes were later taken from it. A dog that was in the vehicle had apparently been removed by animal control some time before.
The van was towed away by Dean's Towing Service shortly after 2 a.m. and the parking lot was cleared for use.
Bank President Stephen Crowe was in his fourth-floor office when he got a phone call that there was a possible robbery in progress downstairs. He ran down the stairs and actually passed the suspect in the hallway as the robber fled the building.
"The police were right here. They were very responsive and extremely professional," said Crowe. "Our employees were absolutely fantastic."
He said the bank workers did what they were trained to do in such an incident. The bank has collaborated with the local police on training "so we both know what to do." While there had never been a robbery at Hoosac Bank during his time there, Crowe said there had been a "bad situation" some 20 years ago at a bank he was at in Lexington.
Employees were kept in the bank, away from the Main Street side, to be interviewed by police. The second man that had been taken into custody by police had refused to remain in the bank after the robbery, said Crowe.
He said the bank would be open this morning for regular hours. It also has two branches, one in Williamstown and a loan office in Adams.
Morocco said the second man did not appear to have anything to do with the robbery.
After the suspected explosive package was removed, local and state police examined the scene outside the bank and removed a backpack containing an unknown amount of money taken by the robber.
The last bank robbery in the Berkshires occurred in 2004 when two men robbed the Credit Union of the Berkshires of more than $100,000. Both men were convicted and sentenced to prison.
There hasn't been a bank robbery in North County in recent memory, and certainly not involving explosives. Three Williams students were charged after trying to set off a homemade explosive on Cole Field in Williamstown last year.
The excitement generated wild speculation and rumors about shootings, hostages and numerous robbers. However, there was no gunplay, no hostages and, at post time, only one confirmed robbery suspect who was in custody.
Where were you when it went down? How did you find out the news? Tell us by posting in the comment section below.
Edited May 24, 1:30 p.m., to delete 'breaking news' from headline
May 23, 8:45 p.m.
NORTH ADAMS — Main Street remained blocked off this evening because a suspected bank robber dropped what police believe is 1-pound of military-grade TNT and a detonator device.
Police were waiting for a bomb disposal unit from Weston at press time.
The robbery suspect, identified in Friday's police log as Robert Albert Bywaters of Schenectady, N.Y., is being held in the North Adams lockup.
The robbery attempt at Hoosac Bank was called in at about 3:30 this afternoon. Police descended on the bank within minutes, blocking off the area around the bank on Main Street and the parking lot off Center Street.
Witnesses could hear police yelling at pedestrians to get off the street. Officers armed with automatic weapons were patrolling the area. The suspect was apprehended by several officers as soon as he exited the bank onto Main Street.
"He had a gun, a .380 semi-automatic and he also claimed he had a bomb on him. The North Adams Police Department took him down as he was exiting the bank," said Public Safety Commissioner E. John Morocco. "We did recover a bag. How much money is in the bag is yet to be determined. The bag is still on the concrete."
The bag, the man's hat and a rectangular package remained on the sidewalk in front of McClelland's, two doors down from the bank.
Those inside the bank were shaken up but unhurt, said Richard Alcombright, vice president of retail banking at Hoosac and a city councilor, in a phone interview shortly after the robbery attempt. The bank employees had remained in the bank to be interviewed by police.
Morocco said the police began evacuating the area around the bank after the Massachusetts Bomb Squad's preliminary investigation pointed to the real possibility of high explosives.
The squad used a remote control robot to examine the suspected bomb and detonator.
"As soon as we realized what we had ... that there was a potential for a bomb there, we began evacuating. We've evacuated from American Legion Drive up to Eagle Street," Morocco said.
The suspect's vehicle in the Big Y parking lot
The suspect's dark blue Dodge Ram 1500 van parked in the Big Y has been cordoned off for a 100-foot perimeter while police deal with the potential threat on Main Street.
Police at the scene could not confirm if there was a second explosive in the van.
Morocco declined to comment at this time on what the suspect had said or done inside the bank other than that he had told clerks he had a gun and a bomb.
The suspect has been charged with bank robbery and is not cooperating with police. He has asked for lawyer, said the commissioner, who added that more charges are pending.
Scanner reports said that one or two men were walking around the bank with head teller. According to uncomfirmed reports, the man had said "If you play by my rules you won't get hurt."
A second man taken into custody and described as a person of interest is now not believed to linked to the robbery. Morocco said he had come under suspicion because he had a dispute with a teller and was creating a disturbance in the bank.
There were possibly two customers and between 10 and 20 employees in the bank.
Reports of a third man captured in relation to the robbery were incorrect, said Morocco.
Staff Reporter Jenn Thomas contributed to this report.
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OMG...I saw officer Sacco walking down Main street with his gun drawn; a man walked out of the bank holding a bag...all hell broke loose...the officers were yelling to drop the bag and get on the ground...he started resisting 5 officers wrestled him to the ground...a second man was grabbed right in front of iBerkshires and Atef...several officers were wrestling him...they had to taze the guy!
Great job done by our local police department and other law enforcement officers coming from other towns. He will get what he deserves! I will have pictures posted on my site tomorrow!
The North Adams Police Department should be commended for their quick, speedy response and their expertise in handling this in the manner in which they did. It certainly puts my mind at ease, that I can feel save living in North Adams, with our police department.
These officers did a great job nothing like this has ever happened in north adams & I'm glad to know our officers jumped into action so quickly.Great job
Just want to say great job to the NAPD!!!!
My daughter was at Bank North when she seen the officers blocking off traffic and running towards the suspect yelling get down, the guy tried to grab the officer and he was taken down.
Enough is enough we need to take our city back!!!! Get rid of the Gangs, drug dealers, child abusers, etc. They all think they can come in here and take us over, they got another thing coming. GOOD JOB TO OUR BOYS IN BLUE!!!!!!!!!
I would like to say good job for the napd for calling the state police bomb squad and getting the fbi involved,and for the liars that supposobly seen so one get shot or whatever sprending the rumors you should be ashamed. I would also like to thank the state police for being kind enough to ask me and my uncle to cross the street during the atempt to get in the vehicle but NAPD was cocky and told my uncle and i to beat it when we were asked nicely by the state police to cross the road. I am glad that the pitbull was not a mean fighter and was only going after the officer when brung out of the blue van because of needing to go to the bathroom and stress levels of someone going into his/her terrortory I ask that the dog is not put to sleep but brung back to NY for a safe home cause what i seen was a dog just protecting what it thought was right to do. SEEM TO ME LIKE IT WAS TAMED but had a lot of stress.Awhile before the police had enterd the suspects van a white truck was trying to be cool and speed on the bridge when lossed control and hit a young ladie who was trying to avoid the accident driving in the lane next to it,I am glad to say if the young ladie was not next to the truck it would have went right over the bridge and caused another life threating situation that could have killed 2 people who were in the truck,We had to notify Officers that were unaware of the accident that happened nearly 700 ft away from them on the bridge that was cleary NOTICABLE I gladly went up to the accident and gave the young ladie my info for being a witness along with my uncle and several others,the reason for this is that if we didnt it would have been her say against there say.As my uncle made sense to me when he said there we have done our good deed for the day and i aggreed! Once again Good work BOMBSquad for the patience to do what you did securing the millitary TNT that would have been a devastading blow,but i dont get why the robber went out the other side of the bank.
Obviously a great job by the North Adams Police Department and Bomb squad. Thank you to all the officers involved. Also great job by Iberkshires for keeping the community updated.
This post is in response to a majority of the posts that I have read on here. First off, no matter where it is, a bank is a target for a robbery. That is why so many security measures are put in place. To think that North Adams would be immune to a robbery is very short sighted. This isn’t the first time that this has happened in the area and also not the first robbery attempt at the Hoosac Bank. There were attempts back in the 80’s. What is disturbing to me is that the majority of the people that are commenting on this article were probably not living in North Adams at that point.
From what I have read and heard it appears that everyone did their job. The employees were trained and put their training to use. The police officers took their positions as officers, knowing that it was their duty to serve and protect the citizens. Everyone did their job. What seems to have happened is that once people got wind of this story rumors were started and people just loved to run with the rumors because sometimes fiction is more interesting than reality.
I lived in North Adams for many years and my family has resided in the city since at least the mid 1800’s. What I find disturbing in reading these comments is the lack of basic writing skills. When I went through the North Adams public school system everyone I knew had been taught and was able to compose a coherent sentence. What I am reading in these comments makes me question two things. The first is, are you people who grew up in this community and learned the basic values of the community or are you transplants from somewhere else now living in the city and interjecting your comments? Secondly, where did you get your education? Have the city schools so badly degraded that you do not even know how to write coherently? Let me give you some examples. Brandon said “when brung out” where did you ever learn that BRUNG was a word? Are you trying to use the past tense of the word “bring”? If that’s the case the word is BROUGHT. Ifyouknew commented, “give credit to na police, but, this has been in the making, so why dont they get pre-active?” I won’t even get into the fact that you don’t apostrophize a contraction, but what is PRE-ACTIVE? Do you mean PRO-ACTIVE? Sarah said, “omg my friends parents are stuck in traffic people are crazy these days who goes and try's to rob a bank i am apuled by this” again learn how to spell APPALLED and the difference between TRY'S and TRIES. You ask who goes and tries to rob a bank these days? Sarah, do you not watch or I dare ask read any news? Robberies happen all the time. They happen at banks, convenience stores, gas stations. Please educate yourself with what’s going on in the world!
Although this was a tense situation are you even aware of things that are currently going on in the world that are exponentially graver? Currently there are more than 2.5 million human beings being run out of Darfur by the Janjaweed having to take refuge in the desert in what is a calculated genocide in that area of the world. Three weeks after a devastating cyclone has hit Myanmar the corrupt government has still not allowed aid workers into the country to help the most needing citizens who lost their homes, which to you would seem like a shanty. They have not been provided food or fresh water. They are now living with disease and having to drink water from streams polluted with dead bodies. Please put a little perspective into your lives. So to this I ask you, could your time and energy be better spent focusing on the bigger picture of the world that you live in rather than arguing whether or not an Officer Foley showed up at a bank robbery and if so what his intentions were?
What will it take to once again make North Adams the city I once knew? Is the education system lacking in the city? Has the city become overcrowded by ignorant transplants from other places such as Troy, NY? I would really like to know what has caused such a decline in a city that now embarrasses me to tell people I grew up in.
from: Concerned about the decline of the citizens of North Adams
It's very sad to see some of these entries. First, do you have any clue as to how to speak/type properly? The long entry - I hope you are 10 years old and haven't figured out, how to use the word 'seen' in the right context yet.
I think we should all be very proud of the NAPD and their efforts. Most people have no clue what it is like to be married to an officer, child, friend. You only think like everyone else that they 'have nothing better to do but pull us over.' Did you ever think they are people to? They have families and lives outside of pulling you over. Who was chasing down a man with a gun and a bomb?? Thats right, the police were. I didn't see any citizens running after a crazy guy with a gun did I? Who's there when theres a murder? Who goes to the calls with domestic violence, not know what they are going to walk into? Who has to be the one to see a fatal car accident? Who has to go tell the parents their young child passed away in that car accident? POLICE OFFICERS DO! They don't shy away from the terrible stuff us 'regular' people hate to see. They are there for us when we need them the most and that's what matters! Who cares if they give you a ticket, you were doing something wrong. Get over it. Follow the rules and you'll be fine.
I don't understand why at a time like this, when good ol' NA has something bad happen, you read comments like 'glad the cops have something to do' or bringing up another Officer's life. This is irrelevant to all of this. We should all do our part to try to make it a better place. If people only knew what the cops know, but can't act on until all the paper work is in place or some lawyer will find a loophole and a bad guy/girl gets away with something all because of a technicality.
I am proud to say that I am from NA and proud of the police and fire department that we have. We all should feel fortunate to have the security we do. No it's not perfect, but you can't find anywhere that is. The people that sit here and knock NA for being such a 'sh**hole' - go somewhere else and try living. Most of the people complaining are those that have never left the area so can't appreciate what they have.
I'm happy for the many great men and women who serve our country,Military,Police,firemen..These people put there lives in jeapordy every day on the job...What i find amazing is the lack of respect for those who comment on people's education. This post is all about a bank robbery and has nothing to do Education, who molested who etc...I guess people need a life and to mind there own business...Once again a Job well done by our NAPD/Fire and State Police...Stay with the story that happened and off of peoples back...
These comments are beyond appalling. Please folks, study hard and get your GEDs.
A high percentage of these comments are offensive on many levels.
iBerkshires.com should reconsider its role in the promotion of free speech, review the content of proposed story comments, and refer to majority to Maury or Jerry or whoever is making verbal smut available to the masses these days...
Hats off to all those who work tirelessly to keep the people of North Adams safe.
Can anyone please tell me I didn't imagine this scene??
At 4:20 yesterday afternoon I was sitting at a red light. St. Anthony's church in front of me. Mass MoCA on my left. On the sidewalk in front of St. Anthony's a police officer had a gun drawn and was yelling at a man to " get down ". The man got down. The officer handcuffed him. The light turned green. Did anyone see this besides me? This happened at the same time the robbery took place. My destination was Big Y and everyone was standing outside waiting to hear what was going on. Nobody to my knowledge was looking to their right, as a man that I saw was being arrested. Who was this man? I don't think this incident had anything to do with the robbery or was he the second man that was taken into custody? Does anyone know?
Thank You,
Linda
The Editor: We're thrilled that so many people are taking time to post their feelings about the robbery and what they saw on iBerkshires. However, we ask that readers please stick to the topic - the robbery attempt - and refrain from making personal comments about other posters or comments that have nothing to do with the story.
P.S.: Linda, this is the first we've heard of an arrest near St. Anthony's. We'll check that out. Thanks for the information.
Just a thought Tammy about the St. Anthony's incident--wonder if it had any connection to the auto accident on the bridge that an earlier poster described---and maybe the driver tried to boogie----all within the context of an armed robbery going down??? chbpod
CHBPOD-maybe a comment about the great work of NAPD will come at the next Council meeting. Just remember there is good work done everyday, some it is unseen and not on video. I know you love the cops, still remember you talking about Walt Davis on your show.
great job by the N A P D. the robber deserves everything he gets. i would never do something stupid like that. like putting another human life in harms way. although it did put some ecitement back in this CRATER HOLE they call NORTH ADAMS.
OK
Follow the math
5,000 customers taking $50 out each week are charged $1.50 for each transaction from two local banks= $780,000 per year in bank fees.
I am always confused - And I have a NASD license-not a GED- who are the criminals? again..............the police grabbed the wrong people......YOU ARE BEING ROBBED AT EVERY ATM. And then they give $250,000 back in community awards so they can pat themselves on the back.
IT IS YOUR MONEY.
