Shoplifting incident at mall leads to arrest in Nov. armed bank robbery
Gerard Dionne, 45, of Manchester, was arrested Dec. 12 outside Macy’s at the Mall of New Hampshire after he allegedly walked out of the store with two Polo sweaters without paying. Now, police say he is also the man who entered Triangle Credit Union Nov. 7, masked and armed with a gun, who got away
MANCHESTER, NH – A man allegedly caught in the act of shoplifting sweaters from Macy’s on Saturday has bigger problems, after police detectives linked him to a Nov. 7 bank robbery.
Gerard Dionne, 45, of Manchester, was arrested Dec. 12 outside Macy’s at the Mall of New Hampshire after he allegedly walked out of the store with two Polo sweaters without paying. Now, police say he is also the man who entered Triangle Credit Union Nov. 7, masked and armed with a gun, who got away with about $400 in cash.
On Saturday police were called to the mall after Dionne allegedly concealed the two Polo sweaters, valued at $230, and walked past the cash registers and out of the store. Two loss prevention officers, Nathan Allen and Justin Tibbetts, stopped Dionne as he walked outside and attempted to speak to him about the theft. Dionne allegedly refused to return to the store, so Allen grabbed Dionne’s jacket in an attempt to keep him detained until police arrived. Dionne allegedly struck Allen with a closed fist, but the security officers were able to subdue Dionne until police arrived. Allen was unharmed, police said.
Once back at police headquarters, Detectives Justin Mangum and Lucas Hobbs spoke with Dionne about the Macy’s incident and gathered enough probable cause during the interview to link Dionne with an armed robbery on Nov. 7, 2015 at Triangle Credit Union, 257 Elm St. Police allege Dionne, masked and carrying a gun, is the robber who walked into the credit union at 10:30 a.m. on November 7 and fled the bank with more than $400 in cash.
Dionne was scheduled to be arraigned December 14, 2015 for both robberies.
