43
Bond set at $250K for suspect in bank robbery
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Niles man who had been released from federal prison this June for a 1998 bank robbery is believed to have called 911 with two false alarms Tuesday afternoon to draw police officers away from a Youngstown Road bank, where he committed a robbery, police said.
But as soon as Niles police looked at the Farmers National Bank surveillance video of the robbery, they knew what to do, said Niles Detective Jim Robbins.
“The calls were a diversion to take us away from the bank robbery, which didn’t work,” Robbins said.
That’s because Girard Detective Greg Manente had encountered Timothy J. Wolfe, 49, a couple of weeks earlier and put out a warning to area police departments to be on the lookout for him, Robbins said.
The warning also included a photograph of Wolfe.
“Greg Manente did a great job” by putting out the warning, Robbins said.
Within several hours after the robbery, police in East Cleveland had arrested Wolfe on a warrant from Niles police.
Wolfe was arraigned in Niles Municipal Court Wednesday on charges of robbery, making terroristic threats and disrupting public services, all felonies. Judge Thomas Townley set bond at $250,000, and Wolfe remains in the Trumbull County jail.
Police believe Wolfe called 911 about 1:03 p.m. Tuesday to say that a bomb would be going off soon at Niles McKinley High School. No bomb was found at the school.
Police also believe Wolfe is the person who called 911 about 1:08 p.m. to say that he had seen a person inside the J.C. Penney store in Eastwood Mall with a gun in his waistband. Police found no one matching the description given by the caller.
The bank robbery, at 5845 Youngstown Road, near Johnnycake Road, took place about 1:07 p.m., police said, when a bald man came into the bank and told a teller to give him all of her 50s and 100s. The man didn’t threaten the teller or show a weapon.
The robbery charge pertains to the bank, the terroristic-threat charge pertains to the school, and the disrupting public services pertains to the J.C. Penney, Robbins said.
If convicted of all charges, Wolfe faces about 15 years in prison.
Wolfe was sentenced to 121/2 years in federal prison in 1998 for a bank robbery.
Robbins said Wolfe is a Niles native who had been staying with friends on Higley Avenue in Niles just before the robbery. Wolfe’s friends are not implicated in the crimes, Robbins said.
Wolfe returns to Niles Municipal Court at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday.