Jurgen Ladstetter {BSO}
By Kevin Deutsch
A man wanted for robbery by the New York City Police Department was arrested in Margate for trying to defraud a local TD Bank branch, then trying to swim his way to freedom in a canal, court records show.
Jurgen Ladstetter, 51, walked into the bank at 490 N. State Rd. 7 on March 26 and allegedly tried to withdraw $9,500 from a stranger’s bank account, police said. At the teller’s window, Ladstetter used a TD Bank card and counterfeit New York state driver’s license in the male victim’s name, but with Ladstetter’s photo, according to an arrest affidavit filed by the Margate Police Department.
The bank card, which had been issued that same day at a TD Bank branch in Fort Lauderdale, set off a flag notification at the Margate bank because it exceeded the amount of available funds in the account, records show.
Police were called and Ladstetter left the bank, police said. A responding Margate officer spotted the accused fraudster outside the bank and ordered him to stop, but Ladstetter took off running and jumped into a nearby canal, the affidavit states.
He swam east toward West Palm Drive, police said. He later got out of the water in the backyard area of several residences, where a K-9 officer and his canine partner, named Bak, tracked him down, police said.
The TD bank manager identified Ladstetter in a line-up as the man who tried to fraudulently withdraw cash, the affidavit states.
Ladstetter, who records show has multiple previous arrests in New York, is charged with multiple crimes including grand theft, possessing a forged credit card, passing a forged credit card, and resisting an officer.
He was being held without bond at the Broward Main Jail Tuesday while awaiting extradition to New York to face a second-degree robbery charge. The charge pertains to a robbery in which someone was physically injured, records show.
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