Rye Country Day Alumnus a Bank Robber
The Rye Country Day School alumni office might we calling over to Rikers Island during their next fund raising drive.
Not to reach former First Lady Barbara Bush, famed playwright Edward Albee or Rye Mayor Steve Otis, all notable alumni. The alumni office will be looking for someone, who at least until he was caught, was an excellent fund raising prospect (lots of cash).
Christian A. Torres, 21, was a New York City police officer and graduate of Rye Country Day School, where he attended on a full scholarship.
In April, cops busted Torres as a serial bank robber. The New York Times reported:
"Officer Torres, police officials said, committed three robberies at two branches of Sovereign Bank — twice in Manhattan and once in Pennsylvania — apparently using some of the $118,305 for a new car, for a diamond engagement ring for his girlfriend and to pay off his student loans.
He grew increasingly brazen, the police said: at the first robbery, in June 2007, he simply handed a note to the teller demanding money. At the second, in November, they said, he showed a gun in his belt, which police described as an imitation weapon. At the third, on Thursday, he waved his personal 9-millimeter gun at three bank employees as he demanded cash in $20, $50 and $100 bills, the police said.
His mini-spree ended Thursday in Pennsylvania when Muhlenberg Township police officers stopped him after the robbery. They found $113,000 in a plastic bag in his car along with a blond wig and a derby hat, masking tape and gloves and a black imitation pistol that investigators believe is the one used in the robbery in November….
The police said that Officer Torres is suspected of committing the first bank robbery at 3 p.m. on June 8, while he was a cadet, taking $16,305 from the Sovereign Bank branch at 57 Avenue A on the Lower East Side.
At 7 a.m. on Nov. 16, he approached three employees at the same branch, ordered them to open a safe and walked off with $102,000, the police said.
That day, the police said, he bought a 2008 Toyota Scion, putting down $18,500 in cash on a $23,000 vehicle. Also in November, he returned to John Jay and paid off $2,500 in college cadet loans with three postal money orders. And, sometime in the last two months, he bought his girlfriend a 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring, according to the police."
Should be one interesting class reunion when that one rolls around.
