Dozens of customers victimized by the brazen burglary of a Queens bank vault are now scrambling to divide the cash that was left behind.
Maspeth Federal Savings Bank in Rego Park wants a federal judge to figure out which of its customers should get restitution from the $588,370 in bills left scattered in the vault after the May 20 heist.
The four thieves had rifled through dozens of safe-deposit boxes, making off with $296,000 in cash and $4.3 million in valuables — including diamonds, jewelry, rare baseball cards and coins. But they left behind plenty of dough on the floor.
Michael Mazzara, 44; Charles Kerrigan, 40, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 36, the son of a Gambino crime family associate, were arrested in July for the bank job; Kerrigan’s brother, Christopher, was arrested just last month. Cops said the men used a blowtorch to burn through the roof of the Woodhaven Boulevard building.
Once inside, the foursome trashed the place, the bank says in a new Brooklyn Federal Court filing. Safe deposit boxes were scattered about, many with their identifying numbers removed. The greenbacks on the floor were “in no way identifiable with any specific box,” the bank says.
The bank says it “cannot determine” who the money belongs to.
Maspeth Federal Savings says 135 customers put in claims for a total of $3.5 million.
The bank wants the customers to “prove ownership” of the recovered bills, and if that’s not possible, to have the court decide who gets what.
The victims haven’t gotten their valuables, or their cash, back. And now some feel the bank is trying to shirk responsibility for the losses.
“It’s pretty shocking,” said lawyer Brittany Sloane Weiner, who represents about 20 of the customers named by Maspeth Federal Savings in the court papers. “The clients are very upset. We disagree with what the bank is trying to do, we don’t think they should just be let off the hook.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, insures bank deposits up to $250,000, but the agency doesn’t protect items in safe deposit boxes and says banks aren’t liable for those losses.
A lawyer for Maspeth Federal declined comment. Mazzara, Kerrigan and Mascuzzio, indicted on bank robbery and burglary charges and face a November trial.
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