An accused Brooklyn bank robber who was captured holding stolen cash when he stopped for a Chinese food breakfast on the Lower East Side is a 72-year-old homeless ex-con released from prison over the summer, NYPD officials said Saturday.
Joseph Jean-Louis, who was let out on parole, faces robbery, grand larceny and menacing charges stemming from the hold-up of a TD Bank in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, shortly after 9 a.m. Friday, cops said.
Police arrested him an hour later when a tracker hidden in the stolen cash led them to the New Kim Tuong Restaurant on Chrystie St. near Hester St.
Jean-Louis, wearing a stained gray shirt and blue pants, had just finished eating an order of shrimp fried rice, cops said.
Jean-Louis is accused of walking into the bank on Fourth Ave. near 39th St., telling a teller he had a gun and demanding money, cops said.
He left the bank with about $500, they said. No weapon was ever displayed.
The robber ran down Fourth Ave. toward 36th St. and the nearest train station, cops said.
Cops activated the tracker and realized it had surfaced near Sara D. Roosevelt Park near Grand and Chrystie Sts.
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
Joseph Jean-Louis was carrying $500 cops say he stole from a TD Bank in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
The officers zeroed in after getting a clear indication that the signal was coming out of the Vietnamese-Chinese restaurant.
Cops said they found the pilfered cash on Jean-Louis when he was taken into custody down the block from the restaurant.
“You got the wrong dude, man! That’s my money,” Jean-Louis said, according to cops, as he was taken away in handcuffs. “That’s my Social Security!”
The ex-con added: “I got a $50 million loan from the bank!”
Cops also charged Jean-Louis with criminal possession of stolen property because they said he was carrying the stolen cash, still wrapped in the bank’s money band.
Jean-Louis has been staying at a men’s shelter on E. 30th St. near First Ave. in Kips Bay.
He was released from the Elmira Correctional Facility on July 19 after being sentenced to a year in prison on an attempted robbery conviction, according to court papers.
He’s on parole until February.
His first stint in prison was in 1999 when he was convicted of attempted robbery and sentenced to serve five years in prison. He was released in 2004.
His arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on the bank robbery charges was pending Saturday.
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