Suspected bank robber arrested

Police say that the man who robbed two Oceanside banks, and at least two other banks in the past month, has been caught.

Charles Riehl, 43, was arrested and charged with three counts of third-degree robbery, and violating his parole, after an Astoria Bank branch in West Babylon was held up last Friday. The incident occurred less than an hour after failed robbery attempts at two Chase Bank locations in Copiague earlier that day.

Riehl also faces robbery charges in Nassau County for three holdups since June 6: at Astoria Bank, at 3535 Long Beach Road in Oceanside; Roslyn Bank, at 3140 Long Beach Road in Oceanside; and Astoria Bank, at 1149 Wantagh Ave. in Wantagh.

The description of the robber was similar in all cases: a balding white man, 5 feet 8 or 5 feet 9, with a thin build. In each case the subject walked out of the bank and got into a waiting taxi.

The ploy finally failed last Friday. According to the arrest report, at about 3:46 p.m., Suffolk County police notified Nassau County police that a man had failed in his attempts to rob the Chase branches in Copiague but had succeeded in robbing the Astoria branch in West Babylon. He was reported to have left an area of Old Country Road, near the Wantagh Parkway, in a taxi.

Officers of the NCPD’s 3rd Precinct located the taxi near a Stop & Shop on Old Country Road, and Riehl fled on foot. The officers caught up with him outside the store and arrested him.