911 Calls Released in Home Invasion-Bank Bomb Case

Emergency calls released Friday provide insight into the case of a Bristol home invasion, bomb scare and attempt to steal money from a New Britain bank late last month.

Early on the morning of Monday, Feb. 23, two men wearing dark clothing, ski masks and ski goggles, forced their way into the Bristol home Achieve Financial Credit Union vice president Matthew Yussman, 46, shares with his 70-year-old mother and bound the mother and son, according to police.

The men that strapped an apparent explosive device to Yussman's torso and sent him to the bank branch in New Britain to empty the vault, police said.

Yussman called the bank CEO while sitting his car just after 8 a.m. and warned him of what was about to happen, urging him to evacuate the bank branch, according to the 911 transcripts.

"I just received a call a few minutes ago from one of our VPs who states that he’s a victim of a home invasion over overnight," the CEO said in a 911 call placed to police in Berlin, where the bank is headquartered. "That his mom who resides with him is strapped to a bomb as well as him, and he’s instructing me to vacate our branch in New Britain because one of the perpetrators is going to be accompanying him to clear out cash."

The CEO said he had "no reason not to believe" what Yussman told him, adding that Yussman had asked him not to contact authorities.

“I don’t know who to talk to. This isn’t a normal circumstance,” the CEO said.

The call was then transferred to Bristol police dispatchers.

"He states that’s he strapped to – he has a bomb. He’s sitting in his car in the garage. That the perpetrators also put a bomb under the mother’s bed and he’s instructing me to vacate our New Britain branch because they are going to come and rob it with cash and that the employees are to leave," he repeated on the line with Bristol police.

Police said they're searching for two suspects in the case. According to the affidavit, the men asked Yussman for $4 million, while Yussman said he could only give them $1 million.

No one answered the door at Yussman's home in Bristol on Friday.

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