Credit: FBI
After more than two years, Falls Township police have filed charges against two self-admitted street gang members they allege were connected to two bank robberies that happened in 2013.
Christopher Gaspersz and Jesse Lumberger, both 26-year-old former residents of Morrisville, were connected to the bank robberies in Falls using DNA evidence they left behind, police said.
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Detectives filed arrest warrants earlier in the week for the two men. Sgt. Chris Clark said Gaspersz is currently jailed in a central Pennsylvania state prison, and Lumberger is locked up in a federal prison in Schuylkill County. Both men are convicted of bank robberies in other areas of the state.
Falls police said that a suspect walked into the PNC Bank in the 300 block of West Trenton Avenue on April 12 and handed a teller a demand note. The robber took off after receiving $2,350 in cash. A GPS tracking device was also put in with the money. The GPS tracker was dumped a short distance from the bank near the fence line of an abandoned Exxon gas station.
A few days after the robbery, a resident of the Lincoln Arms Apartments discovered several clothing items and a demand note connected to the robbery, police said.
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DNA was obtained from the robbery scene and the items found at the apartments.
On May 2, the same PNC Bank was robbed at gunpoint of roughly $2,000 cash. A K-9 dog tracked the suspect to the dumpster area of the Lincoln Arms Apartments, where police found clothing that matched the description of the suspect’s, according to court papers.
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Several days after the May robbery, a detective reviewed surveillance footage from a bowling alley near the bank and spotted two men after the robbery.
“While the suspect was initially walking in the area of Lincoln Arms Apartments, he was accompanied by a second subject who walked alongside of him until he crossed the street and entered the bank. During this time the second subject remained in the area of the apartments until the suspect returned after having robbed the bank,” investigators noted in court papers.
Police said they received evidence and collected DNA samples after the second robbery.
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Lumberger was arrested about two weeks after the second Falls robbery when police said he held up a bank in McKeesport, Allegheny County. Gaspersz was found standing nearby and told police he was best friends with Lumberger.
Gaspersz was let go after the May robbery and later arrested in late November 2013 after he robbed the same McKeesport bank Lumberger hit months earlier. Gaspersz was taken into custody at a cemetery near the bank and told officers he “didn’t use a gun.”
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Gaspersz told FBI agents he robbed the bank both times in Falls and hid the gun used in the second incident under wood at a nearby school, according to court papers. Police did not note whether the gun was recovered or at what school it was placed.
DNA collected by Falls police and sent to a Pennsylvania State Police lab confirmed the men were linked to the robberies, according to court papers.
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Gaspersz and Lumberger are expected to be arraigned in the coming days with various conspiracy charges connected to the Falls robberies.
Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
