By NANCY HILER
On Thursday morning, a North Bellmore man was charged with grand larceny, suspected of stealing bank account funds over the Internet. That afternoon, a Bellmore store owner was arrested for allegedly using counterfeit tax stamps on cigarette packs. That evening, another North Bellmore man was charged with boating while intoxicated.
Then, on Friday morning, the most dramatic of the crimes occurred, set in motion when the Bellmore branch of Bank of America was robbed. The alleged robbers led police on a high-speed chase through residential streets and then tossed cash and a gun as they attempted to get away. Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow was locked down, along with nine East Meadow schools.
Hours later, a Bellmore man fired three gunshots at a car and barricaded himself in his Bellmore home.
"It was pretty strange," said a Bellmore resident Friday night after hearing about the odd set of crimes. "Maybe it was a full moon or had something to do with the longest day of the year."
"It was crazy," said an EMS worker who was involved in the car chase.
All told, five separate crimes kept Nassau County police busy in Bellmore.
Robbery suspects cause lockdowns
At about 9 a.m. on Friday, two men robbed the Bank of America branch at 2464 Merrick Road in Bellmore. One of the suspects, Earl Hercules Knowles, 39, of Wyandanch, allegedly pointed an automatic handgun at four bank employees and demanded money. The employees complied, and Knowles left the bank and got into a maroon Nissan Altima driven by Antonio Earl Gibson, 29, of Bay Shore, Nassau County police reported.
Numerous police cars pursued the two suspects in what became a high-speed chase up Newbridge Road, then onto the Southern State Parkway, Merrick Road to Front Street and Hempstead Turnpike. At one point a suspect threw a handgun out of the car, and police recovered it. Later on, a suspect tossed stolen cash out of the vehicle, which was scooped up by a few witnesses and later recovered by authorities.
Near the emergency room entrance of Nassau University Medical Center on Hempstead Turnpike, the alleged robbers abandoned the car and started running. The driver, Gibson, was arrested almost immediately in the hospital's street-level parking lot. With Knowles still at large, streets were blocked and the hospital and nine nearby East Meadow schools were locked down. Knowles, the alleged gunman, remained at large until 12:45 p.m., when police said they found him lying under a parked car on the bottom level of the hospital's garage.
Shots fly, block cordoned off
At 2:15 p.m. on Friday, Nassau police were called to a Bellmore home after the resident fired shots into a car and then barricaded himself inside his house. Although no one was hurt in the incident, which took place about a block south of Judith Court, on Boundary Road, the area was cordoned off for several hours.
Police finally entered the home in the early evening, and found it empty. It was not clear when the unidentified man left, police said.
Internet theft
Vincent Forino, 30, of Doris Avenue in North Bellmore, was arraigned on Thursday morning for grand larceny, two months after he allegedly withdrew $31,000 from a Maryland woman's JP Morgan-Chase bank account and deposited it into his own online E-Trade account, according to the Nassau County Police Crimes Against Property Squad. Forino then withdrew $20,000 from the unauthorized deposit before the victim, who did not know him, had a chance to notify authorities about the missing funds, detectives said.
Forino opened the E-Trade account on the Internet with a deposit of $100 in February, and allegedly made the unauthorized deposit in April. He was charged with third-degree grand larceny. E-Trade enables stock trading, banking and investing online.
Counterfeit cigarette stamps
State investigators charged Bellmore store owner and resident Sandeep Thapar, 39, with criminal possession of a forged instrument on Thursday afternoon. State taxation and finance inspectors found 346 counterfeit stamped packs of cigarettes at his shop, Ashirwood Store, at 2514 Merrick Road in Bellmore.
Earlier this month, state cigarette taxes became the highest in the nation, set at $2.75 per pack, which would have meant a loss in taxes of more than $950 for the packs found at the Bellmore store. Sandeep was arraigned Friday at First District Court in Hempstead.
Boating while intoxicated
Nikolaos Travlos, 33, of Albert Road in North Bellmore, was charged on Thursday evening with boating while intoxicated. He drove an unregistered boat at high speeds in Seaford Creek, according to the Nassau County Police Marine Bureau. Travlos was arraigned Thursday in First District Court in Hempstead.
Comments about this story? NHiler@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 234.
Hed for boxed copy: At the scene
By Nancy Hiler and Mike Russo
Last Friday afternoon's pursuit of the second alleged Bellmore bank robber at Nassau University Medical Center prompted the lockdown of the hospital and nine schools in East Meadow.
At the scene, one witness, who declined to give her name, said that she and her friend saw the suspects' car fishtail as it swung into the hospital parking lot, and that they, along with other witnesses, tried to collect some of the cash that fluttered across Hempstead Turnpike after it was thrown from a car window.
"He looked like he was drunk," the witness said of the driver. "There was a helicopter flying right over him, and, like, 10 cop cars were chasing after him."
A number of other witnesses offered similar descriptions of the incident, and several claimed to have made off with some of the money.
East Meadow School District Superintendent Leon Campo said this was the first time he could recall that the entire district was locked down at one time. He said he heard what had happened a little after 9 a.m., and that by 9:30 a.m. the schools were closed off. The lockdown delayed state Regents exams for high school students to late afternoon, after the lockdown was lifted.
"Our staff at every level should be commended for how they conducted themselves during the emergency," said Campo. "I praise the young people who, under lockdown conditions, really were super."
