Ex-con with 80 arrests, ‘Money Problems’ tattoo busted for Brooklyn bank robbery

A career criminal with a neck tattoo that reads “Money Problems” was arrested for robbing a Brooklyn bank on Thursday, with a tracking device leading police to the suspect mere minutes after the heist.

Peter Rodriguez, 45, made off with $1,616 in cash from the Santander Bank branch on Prospect Park West near Windsor Place, in Windsor Terrace, around 9:55 a.m., said police.

A teller at the bank, a 32-year-old woman, told police that Rodriguez tried handing her a note that she refused to accept, leading him to mumble something unintelligible, before stating, “Don’t press the alarm.”

In response, the teller immediately triggered the bank’s silent alarm, before handing Rodriguez a bag containing the cash — and a hidden tracking device.

Using the tracker, it took cops only 30 minutes to zero in on Rodriguez, who they found trying to scale a fence at Seeley St. and Prospect Ave. about a half mile away, according to law enforcement.

Police arrested the suspect after he fell off the fence and hit the ground around 10:25 p.m., cops said.

Rodriguez is charged with robbery, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest, police said.

Rodriguez, who is homeless, has a rap sheet with more than 80 arrests, including two busts last year for separate shoplifting incidents in which he stole vitamins from a Brooklyn Rite Aid and skirt steaks from a Met Foods.

Those arrests occurred while Rodriguez was on parole following his release from state prison in 2022 after serving three years of a six-year sentence for grand larceny and criminal sale of a controlled substance.

This is Rodriguez’s second bank robbery arrest following earlier back-to-back heists that saw the suspect rob two Staten Island banks on Oct. 15, 2018, police said.

Rodriguez kicked off his first bank robbery by passing a note to a teller at a Santander Bank on Amboy Road near Old Amboy Road that read, “Give me the money or you will die,” around 9:40 a.m. that day, cops said.

The teller, a 64-year-old woman, handed Rodriguez a bag containing $2,070, to which Rodriguez responded, “Thank you,” before fleeing.

Then later that day, at 2:15 p.m., the suspect entered a TD Bank on Hylan Blvd. about 5 miles away, where he threatened a teller who then handed him a bag containing $200 and a dye pack, cops said.

He was arrested for those robberies three days later on Oct. 18, 2018, police said.