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Dapper Serial Robber Held Up 6 Banks to Support Drug Addiction: Prosecutors

By Noah Hurowitz | August 31, 2016 6:26pm
 Police tied Joseph DiBenedetto, of Staten Island, to 11 robberies or attempted robberies across Manhattan.
Police tied Joseph DiBenedetto, of Staten Island, to 11 robberies or attempted robberies across Manhattan.
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NYPD

MANHATTAN — A serial robber known for his rotation of fashionable hats robbed at least six Manhattan banks over a five-month span in order to feed a long-running heroin addiction, according to prosecutors.

Joseph DiBenedetto, 34, of Staten Island, was arrested on Tuesday morning after unsuccessfully trying to rob a Popular Community Bank on the Upper West Side, bringing to a close a months-long robbery spree, according to police reports and court documents.

Prosecutors accused DiBenedetto — who appeared on Wednesday hatless and wearing a white T-shirt and black sweatpants — of committing 11 robberies or attempted robberies, in which he netted a total of $22,000, according to an indictment.

According to prosecutors, DiBenedetto admitted to the bank robberies in an interrogation following his arrest, and told officers he was couchsurfing with friends and robbing banks to support his heroin addiction.

DiBenedetto captured headlines thanks in part to the fashionable duds he was seen wearing during each incident, beginning with his first robbery in March. In each case, he passed a note to the teller demanding money and often threatened violence if the worker failed to comply.

“Do as I say,” one note that he passed to a teller in an Aug. 15 robbery reads, according to the indictment. “Don’t be the reason someone gets hurt. Don’t hit the alarm. No dye packs, no alarm, no tracers. Move fast, don’t try me. No games. Someone gets hurt. Gun.”

In one of his last robberies before being caught, DiBenedetto told a teller "Don't make me go into this bag," but the teller passed his note back to him and DiBenedetto fled penniless.

DiBenedetto has been connected to robberies or attempted robberies at the following locations, according to police: Santander Bank at 250 Lexington Ave. in Murray Hill, Santander Bank at 711 Third Ave. in Midtown East, HSBC Bank at 354 Sixth Ave. in Greenwich Village, HSBC bank at 2025 Broadway on the Upper West Side, HSBC Bank located at 721 Amsterdam Ave. on the Upper West Side, an HSBC Bank located at 45 E. 89 St. on the Upper East Side, and a Popular Community Bank at 90 W. 96th St.

DiBenedetto’s downfall came just before 11 a.m. on Monday, when he unsuccessfully tried to rob the Popular Community Bank at Columbus Avenue and West 96th Street, just two hours after being forced to flee from another bank at West 95th Street and Amsterdam Avenue when a teller recognized him from an earlier robbery, according to the federal indictment. 

DiBenedetto fled empty-handed once more from the Columbus Avenue bank when the teller refused, and two officers from the 24th Precinct spotted the him trying to board an M96 bus at West 96th Street and Central Park West and took him into custody, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors claimed police offered to take DiBenedetto to the hospital before interrogating him but that he declined, and then made statements implicating himself in the robberies.

But according to defense attorney Sabrina Schroff, investigators took advantage of her client's drug problem to get a statement.

"They questioned him while he was high and only then took him to the hospital when he began exhibiting withdrawal symptoms," she said.

Schroff argued for DiBenedetto to be admitted to a long-term, inpatient drug treatment program, but Judge James Francis agreed with prosecutors that security measures at such a facility would be lacking and ordered him held without bail.

Dibenedetto is being held at Metropolitan Correctional Center, Manhattan’s downtown federal prison, and his next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13.