A Villager convicted in last year’s pillow case bank robbery is back in jail after less than two weeks of freedom.
Joseph Vincent Albanese, 74, who lives at 1861 W. Schwartz Blvd. on the Historic Side of The Villages, was arrested Sunday by the Lady Lake Police Department on a warrant charging him with a probation violation. He was transferred Wednesday to the Sumter County Detention Center where he was being held without bond.
Albanese pleaded no contest March 15 in Sumter County Court to a charge of robbery. He was set free after serving 122 days in jail. He was placed on probation for eight years.
Albanese was arrested Nov. 14 after he walked into the Wells Fargo bank on U.S. Hwy. 441 in Lady Lake and slipped a pre-written note to a bank teller, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The bank teller removed $700 in cash from her drawer and placed it into a pillow case carried in by Albanese. The Newark, N.J. native “kept apologizing” and sat down in the main lobby area. Bank employees quickly evacuated customers out of the lobby. When deputies arrived at the bank, Albanese was still sitting in the lobby with the pillow case. He said Social Security just “cut him off.”
