Philly Man Pleads Guilty To Bucks Co. Bank Robbery With Sons

HOLLAND, PA — A Philadelphia man recently admitted he tried to rob a Bucks County Bank in 2017 with help from two of his sons, according to federal prosecutors.

Ronald DeWitt Vines, 47, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of attempted armed bank robbery, and using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, prosecutors said Thursday.

Vines was charged in 2018 for attempting to rob a PNC Bank branch on Buck Road in Holland in November 2017.

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Prosecutors said Vines put a handgun against an employee’s head and forced her inside the bank as she arrived for work that morning. After the attempted robbery, Vines left the bank and walked through a nearby wooded area toward another man, court documents stated.

Charging documents alleged Vines’ son Elijah, then 22, stood in the woods behind the bank with a rifle while his brother Solomon, then 18, waited in the car for a signal.

The three men were pulled over within five minutes of the initial armed robbery report, and Northampton Township police found a loaded semi-automatic handgun, a loaded rifle and two body-armor vests, federal prosecutors said.

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In announcing Vines’ guilty plea Thursday, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said he and his family are “a danger to the community.”

“This defendant terrified and threatened the lives of bank employees who were just attempting to do their jobs, and he convinced his sons — young men with their whole lives ahead of them — to help him pull it off,” Williams said. “The simple fact is that this family is a danger to the community.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania did not provide any information on the status of charges against Elijah or Solomon Vines. It did not respond immediately Thursday to Patch’s request for more information.