Man wanted in bank robbery surrenders
A man with ties to Canonsburg and the Fredericktown area turned himself in Sunday evening to authorities who were searching for him in connection with the robbery of more than $100,000 from a bank in the South Hills of Allegheny County last week.
Allegheny County Police said Monday Gary W. White, 20, of Baldwin, surrendered to the county sheriff’s fugitive unit.
Police said White, armed with a knife, entered PNC Bank on Route 51 in Brentwood about 1 p.m. Wednesday and demanded money from the teller. He allegedly managed to get behind the teller’s counter and into the vault, then stole more than $111,000 in cash.
White’s parents live in the Fredericktown area.
Lt. Richard Mullen of Allegheny County Police said most of the money was recovered when police executed search warrants during the investigation, and “very little, if any at all” of the money was left unaccounted for.
On the night of the robbery, Canonsburg police accompanied Allegheny County detectives to a home on Park Avenue in search of White, who wasn’t there, and a 26-year-old man whom investigators were trying to contact. While police were outside the house, North Strabane Township officers, who had set up a perimeter nearby, spotted the other man walking up the street.
The 26-year-old, whose mother owns the house, told police he’d gone with White that evening to a bank in Canonsburg. The man used his debit card to withdraw $500, which he gave to White, along with the card and his cellphone.
At some point that night, the man’s mother allowed detectives to enter the house and look for White. The cellphone White reportedly had taken with him was found in a wooded area near Orchard Avenue, but police couldn’t find White.
Mullen said police believe White was in and out of the woods in that area for at least part of the time between the robbery and when he turned himself in.
White was arraigned before Judge Derwin Rushing, who set bond at $150,000, and was being held in Allegheny County jail.
In a separate case, court records show White is scheduled to be formally arraigned Oct. 24 on charges of robbery, theft, receiving stolen property, possessing an instrument of crime and simple assault filed by police in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, in connection with a July 15 incident.