Wanted for Bank Robbery in Connecticut, Captured in Southeast

SOUTHEAST, NY — Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith reports that two fugitives wanted for bank robbery in Connecticut were captured in the town of Southeast on Tuesday.

The pair was apprehended after they were found sleeping in a stolen car parked near a reservoir.

Messrs. Vance A. Coffin and Vincent T. Rollins, both aged 50 and having last known addresses in Norwich, Connecticut, are facing local stolen property counts in addition to the Connecticut bank robbery charges.

Their arrests unfolded after the Connecticut State Police notified the Sheriff’s Office at about 11:30 a.m. this morning that the men were wanted for an alleged Sept. 23 bank robbery in Canterbury, Connecticut and that they were believed to be somewhere in the area of Brewster, New York.

Connecticut authorities provided a description of the fugitives and said that they should be considered armed and dangerous.

The Sheriff’s Office dispatched about a dozen investigators and plainclothes deputy sheriffs to scour the Brewster and Southeast areas for the suspects. At about 12:45 p.m, investigators spotted the fugitives in a 2010 Toyota Corolla parked off the side of Old Milltown Road in Southeast, near the East Branch Reservoir. The two men were asleep as investigators and deputies closed in upon the car and took them into custody without resistance.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that the car in which the suspects were found had been reported stolen from Colchester, Connecticut on or about Oct. 17. In addition, a North Carolina license plate displayed on the car belonged on another vehicle and that plate had been reported stolen from Newton, North Carolina on or about Oct. 21.

Messrs. Coffin and Rollins were both charged with criminal possession of stolen property (the car) in the third degree, a class D felony, and criminal possession of stolen property (the license plate) in the fifth degree, a class A misdemeanor. As of the time of this News Release the men were awaiting arraignment on the local charges.

They will also be held to face extradition back to Connecticut on the bank robbery charges there.