Two face charges in seven bank robberies

Two Suffolk County men were arrested Thursday -- one of them apprehended in a train-car bathroom -- on charges of robbing seven banks in recent weeks, police said.

Max Schneider, 21, of Dix Hills, and Vito Frabizio, 21, of Deer Park, teamed up on the robberies beginning Feb. 17 in North Babylon, Suffolk County police said. Their most recent heist was Thursday in Lake Grove.

Schneider is charged with seven counts of robbery and Frabizio with one, police said.

"Schneider was the primary person entering the bank," said Suffolk police Det. Sgt. Thomas Groneman. "He'd pass a note to a teller, claiming he had a weapon, take the cash and leave." Groneman said Frabizio would wait outside in a getaway car.

Suffolk County's Major Case Investigations Unit, the Second Precinct Neighborhood Enforcement/Special Operations Team and the newly formed Detective Special Operations Team worked on the case.

Det. Richard Lagnese, of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, said Friday he got a tip and a photo from a Suffolk detective about Schneider boarding a westbound Long Island Rail Road train. New York City and MTA police eventually found Schneider in the bathroom of an LIRR train that was stopped in East New York, an MTA spokesman said.

Groneman said more charges against Fabrizio are likely because police think he helped in several of the robberies.

Schneider was charged in robberies of four TD Bank branches, two Bank of America branches and one Capital One bank. Frabizio was charged in the TD Bank robbery on Feb. 23, police said.