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Serial Bank Robber Admits Holding Up Fort Lee, Hasbrouck Heights Branches, Targeting Englewood

A serial bank robber from the Bronx admitted Wednesday that he held up banks in Fort Lee and Hasbrouck Heights and was planning to hit another in Englewood when federal agents captured him.

Eddy Cruz

Eddy Cruz

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

Eddy Cruz, 42, also admitted during a plea hearing in U.S. District Court in Trenton that he robbed a PNC Bank branch in Jackson Township on Christmas Eve 2013 

Cruz said he robbed a TD Bank branch in Fort Lee on Feb. 13, 2017 and another in Hasbrouck Heights on Feb. 18, 2017, wearing a mask to disguise his identity both times and handing the tellers notes demanding cash.

Cruz is also charged with a bank robbery in Scarsdale, N.Y. 

He was about to hit an Englewood bank on Feb. 24, 2017 when a team of investigators moved in and arrested him without incident, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

The team followed him that day to Englewood from a Manhattan location, Carpenito said.

Cruz parked his red 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage near the Demarest Avenue TD Bank just before noon -- once again while wearing the disguise -- when his captors moved in.

In his car, federal agents found latex gloves, a scarf, sunglasses, and the tight-fitting mask – along with a handwritten note demanding money.

Cruz was eventually taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center for a medical screening before being committed to the Bergen County Jail. The Mitsubishi was impounded.

Carpenito credited the FBI offices in New Jersey and New York; the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office; and police departments in Fort Lee, Hasbrouck Heights, Paramus, and Roxbury, as well as those in Greenburg, Mount Pleasant and Yonkers, N.Y., along with the NYPD – all of whom participated in the Robbery Task Force that took down Cruz.

Handing the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua L. Haber of Fishman’s General Crimes Unit in Newark.

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