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ID's Real Time Crime is slated to chronicle the Pay-O-Matic cashing outlet robberies in Queens that occurred in 2010 and 2012. Three bandits, including Akeem Monsalvatge, Edward Byam, and Derrick Dunkley, were later convicted in connection with the case. The episode, titled Hollywood Heist; Last Supper, airs on December 27, 2022, at 10 pm ET.
The synopsis for the all-new episode reads:
"In New York City, surveillance cameras help track down a trio of bandits after a daring heist of a Pay-o-Matic in Queens."
According to reports, the robbers used expensive, full-headed, Hollywood-style masks while pretending to be cops during the heist on February 14, 2012. The burglars were described as white males who wore police badges and jackets bearing NYPD logos. After stealing at least $200,000 in cash, they fled the scene in a black late '90's Ford Expedition with a shattered rear passenger window.
Authorities who examined the surveillance video, however, immediately realized that the burglars were wearing pullover masks. They also used a photo they dropped at the scene to trace it back to a Walgreens receipt under the name of one of the bandits. Cops also used DNA evidence from the previous 2010 robbery.
Who were the three men found guilty in the Queens Pay-O-Matic robberies?
Akeem Monsalvatge, Edward Byam, and Derrick Dunkley were found guilty in 2014 by a federal Brooklyn jury of looting two Pay-O-Matic check cashing stations in Queens. The second heist, which occurred on Valentine's Day 2012, attracted attention because the perpetrators' masks almost convinced authorities and the witnesses present at the scene that they were white males.
During their previous February 2010 robbery, a man reportedly broke into the Pay-O-Matic station using the roof while a second man held a weapon in the lobby and a third man stood guard outside. All three men were wearing masks at the time. One of them also attacked the teller, the only worker on the overnight shift, for not having the safe key. They made about $40,000 from the heist.
During their second heist on Valentine's Day 2012, three males approached a teller named Liloutie Ramadan in the Pay-O-Matic parking lot, confronting her with a photo of her house and threatening her. Ramadan described them as white males with NYPD badges and logos on their jackets. They also held her and a fellow employee at gunpoint and asked them to empty the safe.
Byam, 26, Dunkley, 26, and Monslavatge, 38, were handed a mandatory minimum sentence of 32 years.
Authorities used DNA evidence and a photograph found at the Pay-O-Matic crime scene to locate the burglars
Investigators were able to follow the burglars' tracks to a Walgreens using the photo they used to threaten the teller, which was left behind at the scene. They found a receipt with Byam's name and phone number on it. Furthermore, records from Composite Effects, a renowned mask producer, showed that he ordered three masks, which were delivered to a home rented by Monsalvatge's wife.
Moreover, the handcuffs that the thieves left on the teller in the 2010 incident had Monsalvatge's DNA on them. They also found Dunkley's DNA on a crowbar present at the scene. Additionally, phone records revealed that the three men spoke on the phone often in the days after each of the thefts.
The three burglars were charged for both Pay-O-Matic robberies, which occurred exactly two years apart from one another. They allegedly used bandanas to cover their faces during the 2010 robbery and police uniform disguises and lifelike "special effects" masks for the one carried out in 2012. They also used bleach to destroy fingerprints and DNA.
Real Time Crime on ID airs with the Queens Pay-O-Matic thefts this Tuesday, December 27, at 10 pm ET.
