Investigators have located the two people photographed in a bank inquiring about the value of old currency similar to that taken in a violent home-invasion robbery on Walnut Street in August, and although they are no longer thought to be involved, the investigation remains active, police said Tuesday.
In early August, a home on Walnut Street was robbed by two masked men and a woman who bound two victims with duct tape at gunpoint and shocked one with a Taser. The following Monday, investigators were alerted to surveillance videos of two people at a Whitney Bank branch on the Westbank with some currency from the early 1900s similar to that taken from the home.
Based on information from the public, investigators have since found the two people in the photos and questioned them, said Lt. Mike Montalbano, interim commander of the NOPD Second District. The pair offered an explanation as to how they acquired the banknotes in circumstances unrelated to the Walnut Street robbery, Montalbano said, and further investigation showed their story to be plausible, so police no longer believe they had any involvement.
“After speaking with the Secret Service, it turns out that those banknotes are not as uncommon as we first thought,” Montalbano said. “So we don’t believe they had any involvement. It was a coincidence.”
Investigators are now pursuing new “positive leads” in the case, Montalbano said, but he declined to elaborate on them.
Montalbano’s comments were made during Tuesday’s monthly meeting between the NOPD Second District leadership and community members, which also involved a review of a number of other recent cases. To read our live coverage of the meeting, click “Replay” in the box below.
