Bank Robber Caught After Bus Getaway

A man that allegedly stole $2,200 at gunpoint from Webster Bank branch on the Village Green on January 18, then used a public bus to transport him back home, was charged with first-degree robbery, as reported by the Litchfield County Times from New Milford, Connecticut.

Besides the robbery charges, Preston Hanlon, 27, has the possibility of facing federal charges.

Police waited at Hanlon's home at 568 Danbury Road for five hours before he surrendered.

Lieutenant James Duda, the public information officer for the New Milford Police, told press that officers responded to the bank's activated alarm system at approximately 8:40 in the morning.  After speaking with witnesses they were told that Mr. Hanlon boarded a Housatonic Area Regional Transit (HART) bus to make his way home.

Hanlon entered the branch at 8:30 a.m. when it opened.

Lieutenant Duda said that although it was reported that Hanlon presented a small silver handgun during the robbery, "there were no injuries or threats of violence at the bank."

Witnesses, and video footage, depict Hanlon, wearing an Adidas sweatshirt and black facemask, fleeing on foot.  Later he was seen entering the transit vehicle.

Officers conducting emergency training at the same time from New Milford and Brookfield police departments - wearing camouflage and carrying what some thought were automatic weaponry - cordoned off the area around the Hanlon home.  They were aided by Danbury police, New Milford fire personnel and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the department's "tactical response", per Lieutenant Duda, some area residents and businesses had to be evacuated.  He added, "You plan for the worse."

An investigator, and those that knew him, attempted to get Hanlon to surrender.  There was a roommate present in the home at the same time but Duda assured the press that it was not a "hostage situation."  The roommate has not been criminally charged.

In the hours it took Hanlon to give himself up - it was nearing 3 p.m. before the standoff ended - the traffic along Route 7 was significantly backed up.

Hanlon has a record of arrests on charges of breach of peace and for reckless driving.

Hanlon is scheduled for arraignment in Litchfield Superior Court of first-degree robbery.  He is being held at New Milford Police Department on a bond of $500,000.  FBI agents have also questioned him; which may result in more serious federal charges.

Lieutenant Duda said, "There is a potential that he could be charged federally."

Both the Webster Bank, and the Webster Bank branch on route 7, have been robbed in the last five or six years per Lieutenant Duda.

Information garnered from Hanlon's Facebook profile page shows him enrolled from "2008 to the present" in "Education America-Tampa Technical Institute." He listed a criminal justice major and a math minor.  It also said that he is living in Lutz, Florida and his hometown was listed as the "west side of CT."

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