A 51-year-old man has been arrested and charged in the robbery of the uptown Bank of Montreal branch last week.
Darren Stefancizan, currently of no fixed address, was arrested in Vancouver on April 4 and charged in relation to the April 3 Royal City robbery and an April 2 bank robbery in Vancouver.
According to New Westminster Police Service Staff-Sgt. Paul Hyland, the key tip that led to Stefancizan's arrest was something said during the New Westminster robbery.
During that incident, which occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. at the Bank of Montreal branch at 610 Sixth St., a man entered and told one of the tellers that he had a grenade and was holding up the bank. He fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash.
New Westminster police investigators looking into the robbery quickly connected the robbery to an incident earlier on April 3 when police were called to a local halfway house after staff reported they had found a hand grenade in the discarded effects of one of their parolees.
According to Hyland, Stefancizan had been staying at that halfway house and was wanted on a warrant for suspension of his federal parole.
The RCMP explosive disposal unit was called to the scene, but due to the military nature of the device, a Canadian Forces explosives team had to be called over from Vancouver Island. The military team determined the device to be inert and safely disposed of it.
As investigators started connecting the two incidents, Vancouver Police Department officers had located Stefancizan and taken him into custody on the parole warrant.
Stefancizan now faces separate robbery charges for the New Westminster and Vancouvver robberies.
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