WATERVILLE — A city man has been indicted by a Kennebec County grand jury on robbery and terrorizing charges for his alleged role in the Nov. 7 hold up of the Bank of America on Main Street.

The man, William Bruce Adamchak, 48, of Western Avenue, is charged with threatening a bank teller with a bomb and demanding money before leaving with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Adamchak was caught shortly after the 3 p.m. robbery when a witness tracked him up Main Street, across The Concourse and finally to The Big Apple on Elm Street, where he was confronted by police.

There was no bomb and no one was injured. The bank was evacuated.

District Attorney Evert Fowle on Friday said Adamchak’s quick arrest came as a result of good police work and alert citizens.

A customer inside the bank initially tipped police off to the robbery with a phone call, then waited outside on the sidewalk and followed the suspect when he left, police said at the time.

When Adamchak was confronted by a police officer and fled, three men who were watching nearby got in front of him and held him, according to police. Police said they found Adamchak in possession of the same amount of money that had been taken from the bank.

“When (the robber) went into the bank he indicated he had some explosives with him in a knapsack,” Police Chief Joseph Massey said after the robbery. “He left the knapsack in the bank, left it on the counter by the bank teller he had approached.”

A state police bomb squad and a state fire marshal examined the bag inside the bank and determined it contained no explosives.

Adamchak initially was arrested on three outstanding warrants and taken to jail. His indictment this week formalizes the new charges.

The Bank of America robbery happened 48 hours before another robbery Nov. 9 at Waterville Savings Bank of Maine on Upper Main Street. Adamchak was in custody that day and is not a suspect.

Waterville police believe the man in the second holdup is the same man who robbed the HealthFirst Federal Credit Union on Quarry Road in September.

So far, no one has been arrested for those robberies.

Massey said city detectives are scheduled to meet on Monday to compare notes on the twin investigations.

“They’ve run down a lot of leads and unfortunately all it’s done is come to a dead end,” Massey said. “They’re still working on that; looking at what we’ve done, what we haven’t done, where we need to go, what we haven’t thought of that will come up with some new directions.”

The robbery charge against Adamchak is a class B felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The terrorizing charge — threatening the teller with a bomb — is a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Adamchak is being held on $500,000 bail at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta, but an intake worker said Friday there also is a probation revocation in place, so bail will not be allowed.

He is set for arraignment on the indictments Jan. 10 at Kennebec County Superior Court.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

 

Copy the Story Link