Talk about your all-time dumbest criminals.
Court records show that part-time Bucks physical
plant employee Nathan P. Berry, 33, of Newtown
Borough, walked into the TD Bank on the 1100 block
of Woodbourne Road in Middletown at about 5 p.m.
on Tuesday, Feb. 17, and ordered the teller to fill a
white plastic bag with money. He was unarmed.
According to police, Berry could have made a
clean getaway. Instead, he allegedly asked for one
more stack of crisp bills he saw, stuffed the loot in
his pocket and ran out the door, heading uphill
toward Maple Avenue.
But it turns out the extra stack of cash was a dye
pack. Police said Berry got about 50 yards from the
bank before the dye pack exploded, burning a hole
in his pants pocket, injuring his hip and turning an
entire pant-leg red.
Things went from bad to worse. Berry allegedly stashed the cash behind the nearby Woodbourne
Square Shopping Center, but then forgot where he had parked his
getaway vehicle – a brand new pickup truck.
Police said Berry was half-running, half-limping in red-stained
pants looking for his truck when he fell right into the path of
Middletown Police
Officer Michael Lubold.
Lubold chased Berry
across Woodbourne
Road, and he was arrested
in the yard of a
defense attorney’s office.
So what prompted
Berry’s alleged and
short-lived criminal
career?
Police said Berry
bought the pickup truck
but didn’t tell his girlfriend,
the mother of his
two young children, that
he still owed money on
it. He apparently
planned to pay it off as
soon as he got his
income tax return, but then the car dealership began hounding Berry
with calls about the money.
That’s when Berry thought the end to his problems was to, according
to several sources, drink up a little confidence and rob a bank.
Berry was charged with robbery and theft and sent to Bucks
County prison on $100,000 bail. Sources said his girlfriend met bail on
Friday, Feb. 20 and he was released into her custody.
Berry was fired from his job at Bucks.