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Monroe man suspected in 2 bank robberies

A 33-year-old Stroudsburg man has been charged in connection with a bank robbery Saturday at Citizens Bank in Brodheadsville.

Jonathan Berrios is accused of robbing the bank at 108 Erin Lane in Chestnuthill Township around 10:20 a.m.

Surveillance footage shows a dark gray GMC Terrain turning onto Erin Lane around 10:15 a.m. and pulling into the bank parking lot shortly afterward. About a minute later, a man got out of the vehicle and entered the bank wearing a black jacket with a logo on the left sleeve, black pants, a red hooded sweatshirt, white sneakers, a black mask and black gloves.

At the counter, the man handed a teller a note that read, “I have a gun, I’m here to rob, give me whatever you have.” When the teller asked if she could retrieve money from the safe, he said no. She then opened her cash drawer and handed over the money from her tray.

As Berrios took the cash, the bank manager stepped behind the teller and asked if he was robbing them. He replied “yes,” then added, “I’m not playing around, I have a gun.”

The teller asked if he also wanted mutilated bills — currency unfit for circulation — and he said he did. She handed him an envelope labeled with the handwritten number 1,135, containing $1,135 in mutilated bills. He also took $1,183 from the drawer, bringing the total to $2,318.

Berrios then left the bank and drove away in the GMC Terrain, which did not have a registration plate displayed, turning south onto Route 209.

The teller described the suspect as a heavyset Hispanic man about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with small eyes and a black beard.

Investigators later reviewed surveillance footage from the Wawa along Route 209 in Chestnuthill Township that showed the same vehicle traveling south without a license plate.

Police also connected Berrios to a second robbery reported later that morning at First Northern Bank and Trust in Wind Gap, where investigators said the suspect used a similar method.

Authorities learned Berrios was known to drive his mother’s 2019 dark gray GMC Terrain. A photograph of Berrios was compared with bank surveillance images, and investigators said his build and eyes matched those seen in the footage.

License plate reader data later showed the Terrain entering New Jersey, where it was found parked on Henderson Street in Phillipsburg near the home of Berrios’ girlfriend.

Additional surveillance from Old Route 115 showed the vehicle pulled over along the road shortly after the robbery. A heavyset man with a beard — wearing a black jacket with a logo on the sleeve, black pants, a red hooded sweatshirt and white sneakers — got out, retrieved a registration plate and attached it to the rear of the vehicle before driving toward Route 33.

Later that evening, investigators spoke with Berrios’ mother at her Stroudsburg home. She confirmed the Terrain belonged to her and said Berrios had taken it the day before and still had it.

Berrios faces two counts each of terroristic threats and simple assault, along with single counts of robbery, theft by unlawful taking and robbery involving the threat of serious injury.

He is being held in Monroe County Prison on $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 19 before District Judge Colleen Mancuso in Brodheadsville.