Woman arrested in Babylon bank robbery after pursuit, police say

A Bayport woman accused of two bank robberies, including one at a Babylon bank Friday, was caught after leading First Precinct officers on a brief car chase that ended when she crashed into a fence, Suffolk police said.

Julia Rigby, 44, held up New York Commercial Bank at 400 W. Main St. around 3 p.m., and ran out with cash and a dye pack added by a bank employee, police said.

Investigators said witnesses at the bank gave officers a description of the red car she was driving.

When patrol officers spotted the car in West Babylon, the driver refused to pull over and instead sped away, Deputy Inspector Tom Blomberg of the First Precinct said.

Minutes later, Rigby crashed into a stockade fence in front of a home on Lafayette Road in West Babylon, but was not injured, police said.

Blomberg praised his officers, saying "they did a great job."

Police said Rigby also was behind an April 2 holdup at an HSBC branch in West Babylon, and detectives from the crime pattern unit are trying to see if she is responsible for other bank robberies in the past several weeks in which the suspect was a woman.

Rigby was charged with two counts of third-degree robbery in connection with the two holdups, police said.

She was held overnight at the Fourth Precinct for arraignment and also faces charges of reckless driving and petty larceny for stealing merchandise from the Kohl's department store in Islip on Feb. 27, police said.