North Carolina man accused of robbing 9 area banks

A convicted robber from North Carolina is accused of robbing nine area banks - including one each in Enfield and Windsor - during a summertime spree of heists.

Anthony Crawley, 35, of Wilson, N.C., was arraigned in Enfield Superior Court Wednesday, charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree larceny, and breach of peace in connection with a September robbery of the Bank of America branch on Enfield Street in Enfield.

Police say Crawley confessed to investigators, including an Enfield detective, that he robbed the branch with another person who was not identified, police records say.

Crawley, who also has a manslaughter conviction under his belt, is currently held in lieu of more than $1 million in bonds at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

Police say Crawley stole $3,400 in the Enfield robbery, after he passed a note to a teller reading, "Give me 100s, 50s, and 20s. I have a gun."

The robbery was similar to one that occurred just two weeks earlier in Windsor, at the Webster Bank.

The similarities in those robberies prompted an interagency meeting, hosted by the Bloomfield Police Department, on Oct. 11.

Police departments from throughout the area, along with federal law enforcement agents, shared information about the robberies, all of which involved a black male in his 20s or 30s with a matching physical description.

The robberies were also connected in part because the notes passed from the robber to the tellers in each case demanded "100s and 50s," police said.

According to police, an employee at the Connecticut Employees Federal Credit Union in Hartford identified Crawley as the man who robbed that bank on July 29. The teller told cops Crawley had been in the bank a month before with one of the bank's regular customers.

That customer watched video surveillance tape taken of a robbery at the People's Bank inside the Stop & Shop in Bloomfield, and identified Crawley.

The man told police that he'd met Crawley at church and had been asked to provide him with work, police said.

Another witness contacted police after seeing a television news report with a video on the news, police say.

Crawley was arrested on Oct. 14 - hours after Bloomfield police responded to a robbery at Webster Bank in the Copaco Center on Cottage Grove Road.

Police also believe Crawley robbed a Webster Bank in Bloomfield on Aug. 17; a Bank North in New Britain on Aug. 30, and a People's Bank in West Hartford on Sept. 6 and Oct. 7.

Crawley returns to Enfield Superior Court on Dec. 7.

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Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

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