As many know, the Citizens Bank in Shrewsbury was robbed by a masked bandit on Thursday afternoon (see previous article at  The robber walked in with a note demanding money, and indicated he was going to start killing bank tellers if he didn’t get his cash.

Less than an hour later, the alleged thief, Keith Cormier, was arrested thanks to the work of Officers Peter Capalbo and Lawrence Napolitano along with Sgt. Michael Cappucci, when he was spotted in his white GMC van at the intersection of Route 20 and Main Street in Northboro. True to his statement, he was both armed and very dangerous.

How were they able to track him down so quickly….the secret may lie as much in technology, as in old fashioned police work.  My ears on the street tell me that a very alert bank teller had the practice, training, and courage to slip a small GPS unit into the robbers bag of ill gotten loot that tracked the criminal as he made his getaway.

This is a far cry from the days when they’d slip in a dye packet into the money to render it useless to a thief.  Now, with the advent of some amazing new products, GPS units the size of a credit card can be used to help the police track a crook down wherever he may be hiding.

Of course, no bank will ever tell you what security they are using and when, but come on people…there are cameras, dye pellets and now GPS units, so stop robbing the banks already.  You’ll just never have a chance to spend the money.