Man Charged In Middletown Bank Robbery

A Howell Township man was arrested Friday in connection with a bank robbery that happened just hours earlier in Middletown, Middletown Township police said.

In a Facebook post Friday evening, the Middletown police department said Pasquale Montefinese, 31, had been arrested by Middletown Detectives Danny Sullivan and Al Scott and charged with one count of robbery.

Montefinese is accused of walking into the Santander Bank at 201 Harmony Road in Middletown shortly after 2 p.m. on Friday and robbing it, police said.

After robbing the bank, the man, seen in a photo taken from surveillance video, was seen driving away in a black 2002 Chevy Trailblazer, police said; their initial post on the robbery included a license plate number for the Trailblazer.

The post said the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office and the Howell Township Police Department assisted in the investigation, and that more information would be released later.

Montefinese was being held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institute in lieu of $100,000 bail, according to sheriff’s office records.