Westbury man arrested in two bank robberies in Nassau

A 38-year-old Westbury man was arrested Thursday afternoon, charged with robbing two Nassau County banks -- one in East Meadow, the other in Westbury.

Nassau County police said Joseph Occhiogrosso, of 742 Carman Ave., was arrested by Robbery Squad and Bureau of Special Operations officers after being located on Murray Drive and Field Lane in Westbury at 4:20 p.m.

He was arraigned Friday in First District Court in Hempstead on two counts of third-degree robbery. Judge Joy Watson set bail at $150,000.

Police said that at 1:39 p.m. on Sept. 15 Occhiogrosso entered the Capital One Bank branch on Stewart Avenue in East Meadow, handing a demand note to a teller and stealing cash. Five employees and three customers were in the bank at the time, but no one was injured.

Then, at 1:50 p.m. on Oct. 8, police said, Occhiogrosso entered a Bethpage Federal Credit Union branch on Old Country Road in Westbury, presented a demand note to a teller -- and robbed that bank.

There were six employees and three customers present at the time. No one was injured.

Police did not say how much money was stolen in the two robberies. It also was not clear how investigators tied Occhiogrosso to the crimes.

With William Murphy

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”