Former Guttenberg cop accused in Shore bank holdups

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Alert work by Guttenberg police helped collar a former cop implicated in at least nine bank holdups at the Jersey Shore and elsewhere the past year, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

A surveillance photo sent to all police agencies in the state was flagged by a Guttenberg officer who quickly recognized Scott MacKay, a former local resident who worked as a "special" officer, with limited police powers, for several years, Capt. Joel Magenheimer told the site Thursday evening.

"Everybody looked at it and said: 'That's him'," Magenheimer told CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM.

FBI photo shows robber ID'd as former Guttenberg officer Scott MacKay passing a holdup note

"So we gave [the FBI] the information," including McKay's address in Tom River, he said, "and they took the ball and ran with it."

The FBI said MacKay, 47, admitted knocking over the banks after Toms River police nabbed him Saturday following two other holdups hours earlier.

Having worked briefly as a mall security guard in Burlington County, he apparently developed a severe gambling problem, a source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

MacKay's MO was to pass a note saying he had a gun and wanted money, federal authorities said.

All told, he apparently got the national average from each heist: around $3,000.

FBI agents were waiting outside MacKay's house when he showed up on Saturday in a rented green Ford sedan spotted in an earlier holdup, a source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. That same day, two other robberies attributed to MacKay occurred.

MacKay was ordered held on $350,000 bail in the Ocean County Jail pending federal action.

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