Police: bank robbery suspect was on parole for other heists

WATERBURY — A New Haven woman accused of robbing two banks in Waterbury this month was still on special parole stemming from a three-state robbery spree in 2009, according to officials.

Officials said Heather Brown, 48, was placed on special parole in January after serving most of a 16-year sentence. She appeared Wednesday in Superior Court on two charges of second-degree robbery and was being held Thursday at York Correctional Institution in lieu of bails totaling $200,000.

Officials said Brown has been in and out of prison for varying lengths of time since her first entry in 1995. The longest stint was in connection with a spree of robberies in Windsor, East Hartford, Middletown and two towns in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in September 2009. Authorities said at the time that Brown would enter the banks with a note claiming to have a bomb and demanding money.

Rumors swirled that Brown was handing out money to homeless people, but police said they believed she was using the stolen funds for drugs.

According to the warrants supporting Brown’s arrests in the recent Waterbury cases, Brown demanded money from the tellers with notes but didn’t mention bombs or weapons. She targeted the Wells Fargo Bank on Wolcott Street on Feb. 6 and made off with $362, police said.

Brown wasn’t caught at the time and police responded to a robbery at the Liberty Bank on Hamilton Avenue the next day with reports of a similar suspect, the warrant states. The note in that robbery read, “This is a robbery. Don’t make any sudden movements or alert anyone. Empty the whole drawer all bills and no one will get hurt,” according to the warrant.

The teller handed over the money to Brown with a dye pack hidden in the middle and Brown left, according to police.

During the investigation, police noted Brown arrived at the bank in a Jeep. They located the owner and a woman who said she was a passenger that morning, and both said they didn’t know what Brown had planned, according to the warrant.

The owner said Brown asked for a ride to the bank so she could withdraw money, the warrant states. He drove there and Brown went inside with her book bag, and when she got back in the car, he noticed pink smoke coming out of her bag and recognized it as coming from a dye pack hidden with the money, according to the warrant.

He said he made Brown get out of the car, and then saw her walking around the parking lot asking for a ride from others, according to the affidavit.

Brown was arrested Feb. 10 after detectives identified her as the suspect.