Federal authorities said Tuesday that they are seeking evidence that will tie a Portland man who was charged Monday with robbing a bank on Forest Avenue to a robbery less than two weeks ago at a bank on Congress Street.

Francis J. Ready, who turns 59 on Wednesday, was brought into U.S. District Court in Portland on Tuesday to make his initial appearance on charges related to Monday’s robbery at the Bangor Savings Bank at 883 Forest Ave.

This man robbed the TD Bank at 1410 Congress St. on Oct. 3 and a Bangor Savings Bank branch on Oct. 12. Francis J. Ready of Portland pleaded guilty Thursday to both robberies. Courtesy Portland Police Department Facebook

Magistrate Judge John H. Rich III ordered that Ready remain in federal custody after Ready waived his right to a detention hearing. Ready was not required to enter pleas to charges – bank robbery and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence – because the case has yet to be presented to a grand jury.

Court filings indicate that the FBI filed for a search warrant Monday that could produce evidence to incriminate Ready in the robbery at the TD Bank branch at 1410 Congress St. on Oct. 3.

FBI agent Patrick Clancy filed an affidavit seeking a criminal complaint from the court against Ready for the Bangor Savings Bank robbery, and a search warrant for Ready’s car and his apartment at 536 St. John St. in Portland.

Portland police arrested Ready within minutes after the robbery at Bangor Savings Bank, which he is accused of holding up while holding a silver-colored pistol. Officer Edward Ireton stopped Ready as he fled through a nearby parking lot carrying a white bag filled with cash, according to Clancy’s affidavit.

Ireton found an unloaded Harrington and Richardson .32 caliber revolver on Ready. Police later determined that the bag of cash contained $14,189. As Ireton had Ready detained in the parking lot, Ready asked the officer if he could get his cigarettes from his nearby car, Clancy wrote.

That car, a black Pontiac Grand Prix, matched the getaway car captured in surveillance footage from the TD Bank robbery, in which the robber wore a scarf and a hooded windbreaker and pointed a silver-colored revolver at several people in the bank, according to police and court records.

Police determined that the owner of the Pontiac, Corey Berrick, had been staying with Ready at his apartment. When police showed Berrick footage from the TD Bank robbery, Berrick identified Ready as the man in the picture and said he had seen Ready wearing the same red windbreaker on the day of the TD Bank robbery, Clancy wrote in the affidavit.

“I have probable cause to believe, and do in fact believe, that Francis Ready committed bank robbery at TD Bank on October 3, 2015, and at Bangor Savings Bank on Oct. 12, 2015, and that he used a firearm in furtherance of those robberies,” Clancy wrote.

Court records indicate that the robber in the TD Bank holdup escaped with $2,846 in cash.

Bank robbery is punishable by as much as 25 years in prison. Using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence is punishable by five years to life in prison.

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