UPDATE: Berlin man pleads guilty to BB&T bank robbery
A Berlin man has entered a plea, for his involvement in the armed robbery of a Berlin bank, back in March.
On Friday, 53-year-old Jeff Hare pleaded guilty to armed bank robbery, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. According to the plea agreement, on March 13, 2015, Hare went into the BB&T Bank on Racetrack Road, wearing a ski mask and armed with a handgun, where he told the tellers that he had a gun, and was robbing the bank, and that he only wanted 50 and 100 dollar bills, with no dye packs.
He then went from employee to employee pointing the gun at them, and demanding money. Hare also tried to get their car keys and purses, but the tellers said that they weren’t available. In total, Hare stole about $2,850 from the bank.
After getting the money from the tellers, Hare found a bank employee who had locked herself in a back room of the bank, forced open the locked door and demanded her car keys and her purse. She turned them over, and he fled in the employee’s Kia Spectra. He later abandoned it at a nearby business.
Hare was arrested that night at a house in Ocean Pines, still in possession of the money taken from the bank.
Hare has been behind bars since the day of his arrest, during that time he told someone who was visiting him in the Worcester County Detention Center in Snow Hill, that he was being framed, and that someone had a box of garbage that would incriminate him, before asking his visitor to get the box from an address in Ocean Pines, where Hare once lived. A few days later, Hare called that visitor, and asked him “did you get rid of the trash?” The box apparently contained the ski mask that Hare was wearing during the robbery, and carjacking, a .38 caliber revolver believed to have been used during the robbery, and the purse Hare stole from the bank employee, including her driver’s license.
Hare is now facing a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for the armed bank robbery charge, and a mandatory minimum of seven years and up to life in prison for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence charge. His sentencing is scheduled for April 12, at 9:30 AM.
