Alleged Sovereign Bank Robber Waives Hearing

An Allentown man who police say robbed a bank by scribbling a note on the back of a piece of mail, with an address where he was soon captured, waived his right to a preliminary hearing on Monday.

Jonathon Skonieczny, 27, of 446 Hanover Ave., Allentown, remains in Lehigh County Prison in lieu of $500,000 bail. His charges relating to the Jan. 20 robbery of the Sovereign Bank branch at 2191 W. Union Boulevard in Bethlehem will go to trial unless he enters a guilty plea.

According to Bethlehem police, Skonieczny entered the bank and handed the teller a threatening note on the back of an envelope. When police went to the address on the envelope, a rooming house on the 600 block of Gordon Street in Allentown, they found the man they saw on security cameras, Skonieczny. They found the $1,497 he had stolen stuffed into a sock and a pants pocket, police said.

Skonieczny was charged with three felony counts of robbery, simple assault, theft, terroristic threats, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.