Man arrested, arraigned after stealing $2,000 from Boston bank

BOSTON, January 20, 2023 —A Boston man is being held on $10,000 bail after robbing a Cambridge Street bank Tuesday of $2,000 in cash and being tracked down by police after the GPS tracker in the bills revealed his location, District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL, 59, was charged with armed robbery.  Judge Richard Sinnott ordered Campbell held in lieu of $10,000 bail and ordered him to stay away from TD Bank and all victims.  Campbell will return to court February 16 for a probable cause hearing.

At around 12:30 pm Tuesday officers responded to a robbery call at the TD Bank at 250 Cambridge Street in Boston. Witnesses stated that a man arrived at the bank, ignored questions from staff, wrote “I have a bomb on me give me 3,000 in hundreds” on a blank deposit slip and passed it to a teller. The witnesses stated they gave the man approximately $2,000 in cash, and the man left the bank. Unknown to the man, the bills provided had a GPS tracker between them.  Bank employees triggered a panic alarm after the man left. Officers proceeded to use the GPS unit to track the man to the Park Street MBTA station. Officers located the man, Campbell, on the lower platform and immediately arrested him. Officers observed various dollar bills in Campbell’s front left pants pocket.

Officers recovered from Campbell the pen used to write the ransom note, the note itself, $1,888 in cash and the GPS tracker. Campbell has an extensive record of thefts and assaults, out of Utah, dating back to 1990. In Massachusetts, Campbell was most recently convicted in 2014 for armed robbery and threatening to bomb or hijack in Suffolk Superior.

“Great credit has to go to the bank employees here. They maintained their composure in a frightening situation and took essential steps to lead police directly to the person responsible.  This mix of technology and human alertness should be a caution to any others thinking of committing such a crime—you won’t succeed,” Hayden said

James Borghesani, Chief of Communications