US attorney: 3 BK men caught in brazen bank heists

Police arrested three Brooklyn men Tuesday in connection with two brazen bank heists that prosecutors describe as "something out of a movie." U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says Michael Mazzara, Charles

News 12 Staff

Jul 27, 2016, 6:22 AM

Updated 2,837 days ago

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US attorney: 3 BK men caught in brazen bank heists
Police arrested three Brooklyn men Tuesday in connection with two brazen bank heists that prosecutors describe as "something out of a movie."
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says Michael Mazzara, Charles Kerrigan and Anthony Mascuzzio used an array of tools and techniques to steal millions of dollars.
The men allegedly snuck into a construction site on 13th Avenue in April so they could gain access to the roof of an HSBC branch next door.
According to prosecutors, they used a blow torch to cut through the roof and dropped into the bank vaults to take $330,000 in cash and other valuables.
The men also allegedly broke through another bank roof in Queens in May and scored more than $5 million.
Police say they used surveillance video, phone records and evidence left at the scene -- like fuel tanks from the blow torch and looted safety deposit boxes -- to track the three men to a Bensonhurst apartment.
Investigators say the trio may have been involved in other bank heists, and the criminal complaint says other, unnamed suspects were also involved.
The FBI had set up a hidden camera across from the Gravesend home of one of the suspects. According to authorities, the camera recorded them bringing home loot from the two recent burglaries.
It's also unclear if the suspected burglars had inside help, but police say at least one bank's alarm system was disabled before intruders broke in.
In 2009, News 12 reported that Mazzara had been shot during an argument in Sheepshead Bay.


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