NY Man Accused Of Scamming Greenwich Bank: Police

GREENWICH, CT — A 57-year-old Patchogue, NY man was arrested by Greenwich police on a warrant Wednesday charging him with forgery, identity theft and criminal attempt at larceny in connection with the attempted scam of a Greenwich bank in August, according to Greenwich police.

John J. Crane was picked up by Greenwich police at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow, NY where he was being held on unrelated charges.

Crane is accused of masquerading as a customer in August at an unnamed bank on West Putnam Avenue in Greenwich in an attempt to withdraw an undisclosed amount of money from that person's account.

Bank officials allegedly thought that Crane's behavior was suspicious and contacted the police before the transaction was finalized, but he fled the bank before officers arrived.

"Even though he fled before we got there, we were able to ID him through intensive investigative work," Greenwich Police Lt. John Slusarz told Patch on Thursday.

While he stopped short of calling such bank fraud cases common, Slusarz said that the occurrences are far from rare. "The crimes range from being very basic to being very sophisticated."

Crane was charged with:

• Criminal attempt at third-degree larceny
• Second-degree forgery
• Criminal impersonation
• Third-degree identity theft

He was held in lieu of bail of $200,000 and is scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court on Dec. 19.

Photo: John J. Crane. Photo credit: Greenwich Police Department

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