A Maryland man has been arrested and charged with crimes relating to five bank robberies in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia.
Police have charged John Allen Talerico, 49, of Cumberland with three counts of armed robbery, robbery, and theft for three bank robberies committed in Maryland. Additional charges are pending.
Investigators say that Talerico committed his first robbery on December 23, 2010 at a First Commonwealth Bank branch in Osterburg, Pennsylvania. He then allegedly robbed two different banks in Cumberland on three occasions in 2011. Most recently, police say that Talerico robbed a BB&T bank branch in Fort Ashby, West Virginia on March 16 of this year.
An investigation into the Fort Ashby robbery revealed that the suspect had used a vehicle with a dealer tag mounted on the trunk. After a local car dealer said that the suspect had taken an identical vehicle for a test drive the day of the robbery, police were able to crack the case.
A search warrant was executed on Talerico's house Friday. Police found articles of clothing that were identical to those worn in previous robberies, as well as a large undisclosed sum of money that had been hidden in the house.
