Store Robber Caught Via Banana Gets Jail Time: Feds

HARTFORD, CT — A New Britain man charged after police used a banana to identify him was sentenced to jail time last week for committing several robberies at stores in eight different towns across Connecticut.

Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, said last week Gilberto DeLeon, 57, of New Britain, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to 34 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for committing eight robberies of convenience stores and smoke shops in Connecticut in 2022.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between Feb. 27, 2022, and March 16, 2022, Deleon and two associates, using BB guns that are designed to appear similar to real firearms, robbed the following retail locations of cash, cigarettes, and other items:

• Feb. 27 – Scott’s Village Mobil Gas Station, 843 Farmington Ave., Farmington

• March 2 – Mystic Mobil Gas Station, 66 Whitehall Ave., Mystic

• March 3 – Shell Gas Station, 168 Bridge St., East Windsor

• March 3 – Food Bag, 960 Meriden Waterbury Turnpike, Southington

• March 5 – Valero Gas Station, 1 Main St., Ellington

• March 5 – Sunoco Gas Station, 446 Bloomfield Ave., Windsor

• March 8 – Smoker’s Discount World, 636 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield

• March 16 – Cove Smoke Market, located at 841 Cove Road, Stamford

During the robbery in Farmington on Feb. 27, 2022, Deleon, who was serving as a “lookout,” took a banana off of the counter, Avery said.

When he exited the store, surveillance cameras recorded Deleon peeling and eating the banana and then disposing of the banana peel in a receptacle near the gas pumps, she said.

Investigators seized the banana peel and submitted it to laboratory testing, which returned a match for Deleon’s DNA.

Deleon has been detained since his arrest on April 19, 2022. On October 18, 2022, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robber, Avery said.

Steven Galarza, of Seymour, and Efrain Deleon, of New Britain, also participated in these robberies and pleaded guilty to related charges, federal officials said.

On July 20, Galarza, who also committed three additional robberies in Connecticut, New York, and New Hampshire, was sentenced to 78 months of imprisonment. Efrain Deleon awaits sentencing.

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