Police Arrest Alleged Harvard Credit Union Robber

Updated 1:29 p.m.

A man who authorities said confessed to robbing the Harvard University Employees Credit Union in October was arrested Monday morning as he approached another Cambridge bank while under police surveillance.

Paul Gowell, 53, of Wakefield, Mass., was arrested for the attempted robbery of the Cambridge Trust Bank in Porter Square. He was also charged with robbing the East Cambridge Savings Bank on Dec. 3 and the HUECU on Oct. 30.

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on Monday, the Cambridge Police Department received a tip from the FBI Bank Robbery Task Force, which had been following Gowell in the Porter Square area of Cambridge, according to a police report. The police and the task force then collaborated to set up surveillance of the area in order to observe Gowell.

According to the police report, Gowell, who was wearing a baseball hat, a black hooded sweatshirt, and black gloves, parked his car on Hurlbut Street and then headed towards the Porter Square location of the Cambridge Trust Bank, located on Mass. Ave.

"There was information that led the Bank Robbery Task Force to believe that he was going to go rob that bank," said Daniel M. Riviello, the spokesman for the CPD. "So the police officers went into the bank ahead of time and told them to lock the doors, so even if he got the bank, he wouldn’t have been able to get in."

Two officers were inside the bank at the time and watched as the suspect approached, according to the report. When exiting the bank, the officers saw Gowell draw a white handkerchief from his pocket and cover the bottom half of his face with it.

"He left his car and began approaching the bank and started to put a handkerchief over his face as if he were going to go in and rob the bank," Riviello said. "At that time members of the Cambridge police and the Bank Robbery Task Force apprehended him before he get into the bank."

Police proceeded to arrest Gowell, who admitted under interrogation that he had robbed two other banks—the East Cambridge Savings Bank and the HUECU—earlier this year, according to the CPD report.

The HUECU has been robbed twice over the past 13 months. Police have not yet captured the person responsible for the previous robbery, which took place on Dec. 2, 2009.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.