Alleged red-wigged Glen Rock bank robber has checkered past, records show

Alleged red-wigged Glen Rock bank robber has checkered past, records show

March 5, 2015, 9:23 PM    Last updated: Friday, March 6, 2015, 7:15 PM
By CHRIS HARRIS
staff writer |
The Record

GLEN ROCK — The wig-wearing woman who authorities say robbed the Glen Rock Savings Bank last month and took the proceeds to a casino has a checkered criminal past that includes jail stints in both Florida and New York, where she was convicted for robbery, burglary and theft.

Michelle Cantatore, 51, of White Plains, N.Y., was detained Thursday in Atlantic City by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a single bank robbery charge.

But before walking into the Glen Rock bank three weeks ago brandishing a paintball gun, arrest records indicate Cantatore spent more than three years behind bars in a Florida prison following a 1982 conviction on three counts of grand theft and one count of burglary.

Cantatore, who was born in New Mexico, also served more than a year in a New York prison when she was convicted in 1996 of third-degree robbery in Westchester, records show.

According to the FBI’s complaint against her, Cantatore fled Glen Rock with $112,900 in cash and was inside Atlantic City’s bustling Borgata casino just seven hours later.

Investigators used cell phone and vehicle registration records to track Cantatore to the Borgata, the FBI’s complaint states. Surveillance footage recovered by agents showed Cantatore allegedly “handing two large stacks of cash to the Borgata Casino cashier,” according to a news release.
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