Grandfather Doesn’t Have Heart for Crime

COMMACK, N.Y. —  A 68-year-old man with a bad heart and big debts held up a bank with his grandson’s toy gun but was captured when he collapsed during a chase, police said Friday.

Eugene Cadwalader, who allegedly spent the $100,000 he won at gambling several years ago, had run up more than $20,000 in credit card debts alone, said Lt. John Horan of the Suffolk County police robbery squad.

Cadwalader, a retired construction worker with 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, told police he got the idea to rob a bank when he stumbled over his grandson’s toy pistol in the garage.

Cadwalader told police he planned to gamble the bank robbery proceeds at Atlantic City, said Drew Biondo, a spokesman for the district attorney.

At his court arraignment, Cadwalader, sitting in a wheelchair and still in a hospital gown, was ordered held on $15,000 bail on a first-degree robbery charge.