Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith reports that a suspect who was being sought by authorities for an armed robbery in Patterson on October 18th has been apprehended. Mr. John E. Caputo, aged 47, of Wingdale in Dutchess County, is facing a first degree robbery charge, accused of allegedly holding up the Subway sandwich shop in the Patterson Commons Shopping Center at about 6:30 P.M. on Tuesday.
During the robbery, Mr. Caputo allegedly brandished a knife and ordered a shop clerk to hand over money from the cash register. The suspect took an undisclosed sum of cash, departed from the shop and reportedly used a pickup truck that he had left parked nearby as a getaway vehicle. No one was injured in the incident.
Mr. Caputo was apprehended at about nine o’clock this morning (October 20th) when a Sheriff’s investigator in an unmarked car spotted him driving a pickup truck in Kent. The investigator recognized the truck and its driver as matching the descriptions of the suspect and vehicle wanted in the robbery.
As of the time of this News Release, Mr. Caputo was awaiting arraignment in court on the robbery charge. That offense is a class B felony, which is punishable by up to 25 years’ imprisonment upon conviction.