Two robbers put a new twist on the classic heist — enlisting unwitting cabbies as getaway drivers while they ripped off four Manhattan banks, police said.
Robert Krieg, 42, and his pal John Gregg, 32, allegedly began their spree on Feb. 1 by robbing three banks in one day.
In each case, Gregg allegedly strolled into the bank and slipped the teller a note while Krieg waited for him outside with an unsuspecting cabby.
Gregg then allegedly walked out with the loot and the hack drove them away.
But their luck ran out two days later, when one driver put the brakes on their plan.
On Feb. 3, the duo allegedly robbed a Banco Popular on Second Avenue and East 23rd Street, sources said, but the teller slipped a dye pack into the moneybag given to Gregg.
“When [Gregg] hopped into the cab, the dye pack exploded, and the cabdriver didn’t want to go,” said Johnny Yauri, a maintenance man who witnessed the comic scene.
Gregg, he said, “got out of the cab, and the money fell out of his coat. The guy was really nervous and just started running down the street.”
Krieg, who has done time for burglary and attempted burglary, screamed at the cabby to open the trunk, where he left two suitcases but then fled when the hack refused, sources said. Krieg’s ID was inside the luggage, sources said.
“He’s not the brightest bulb in the Christmas tree,” a law-enforcement source said.
Gregg, who has recent busts for petit larceny, was nabbed the next day by police based on information provided by several cabbies, sources said.
Krieg allegedly continued his thieving ways, robbing two more banks on Thursday and Saturday. But the end of the line came when cops spotted him Saturday in Penn Station.
Additional reporting by Matthew Nestel