Gates Police: Teen arrested, charged in connection to ATM robberies

GATES, N.Y. (WHEC) — Gates Police have made an arrest in a recent string of ATM robberies around Monroe County, and they have a local woman training to be an EMT to thank for it.

Tuesday night the department posted to Facebook warning the community of the robbery pattern. Hours later, they put someone behind bars.

The name of the suspect is not being released at this time because he’s a minor, but police say he confessed to Tuesday night’s robbery and his involvement in five other ATM robberies.

Nicole Kuntz, the woman who stopped to call 911 said she would do anything to try and save a life.

"It makes me feel really good to know that I helped someone and I helped them catch him and I could have potentially saved a lot of people from getting hurt,” Kuntz said.

Kuntz was driving home on Spencerport Road Tuesday night when she says she saw the suspect lurking in the bushes by the Key Bank ATM machine.

"I saw him at the corner, looking around the side and it freaked me out so I drove by gain and he came out of the bushes and there was actually someone at the ATM,” Kuntz said.

That’s when she said she pulled over, stayed inside her car, and called 911.

"If you see something suspicious, just give the call because you never know if it’s someone they’re looking for, or for someone that’s potentially dangerous,” Kuntz said.

Investigators say Gates had two armed ATM robberies in July, the city of Rochester had one also in July, and Irondequoit had two, also in that time. Police say all the crimes had the same MO. The suspect would wait at the ATM in a dark hoodie with a face mask, showing what police thought was a gun demanding money, but it turns out, it was a BB gun.

”What’s more concerning is the gun with all the guns we had we didn’t know till we caught him that it was a BB gun but that was obviously very frightening the fact that they would point a gun right at their face and make them take more money out of the ATM,” Chief James VanBrederode said.

Police say the suspect is being held in the juvenile detention center, and that a family court judge set bail as they wait for paperwork on the other robberies he confessed to.