Man Fell Through Ceiling While Robbing West Long Branch Business: PD

WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ — A Jackson man has now been taken into police custody and charged with the 2017 robbery of a West Long Branch check-cashing business, where police say he fell through the ceiling of the business.

Travis Bryant, 41, is charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree burglary and fourth-degree possession of an imitation handgun, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago said Friday.

He robbed the check-cashing business on Rt. 36 at approximately 9 a.m. November 2, 2017, alleged the prosecutor.

West Long Branch Police responded to a silent alarm activation. A store employee, who said he was alone in the shop that morning, told police a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt pulled tightly around his face, and sunglasses, had just robbed the store.

It was quickly determined that the man had entered the store when no customers were present and used a ladder to access and climb through ceiling ducts in order to access a secured, employees-only area of the business where cash was stored.

However, he fell through the ceiling.

After falling through the ceiling, Bryant reportedly approached the store employee, indicated that he was in possession of a weapon, and ordered her into the store bathroom while he made off with her purse, cell phone and approximately $700,000 in cash, driving away in a van.

The FBI helped West Long Branch Police on the case and Bryant was arrested without incident Thursday. He is currently at the Monmouth County Jail awaiting in his first appearance.