Cops honor Pike man's bravery

LACKAWAXEN n Peter Carella saw a bad situation and decided he wasn’t going to put up with it. His decision recently earned him the Pennsylvania State Police Outstanding Citizen Award. Back in May 2006 Carella witnessed a robbery in progress at the Honesdale National Bank branch in Tafton. He called the state police, pursued the suspect at speeds up to 85 mph, chased the robber into a dead end community road and stayed on the line until cops tracked his cell phone by GPS and arrived to make an arrest. “There were kids across the street at the school and it’s my bank,” Carella said. “I got teeded off. I felt violated. So I chased the guy down.” The robber abandoned his car at the end of the chase, threw the money at Carella and ran off into the woods, where police quickly arrested him. Did Carella think about the danger in facing a possibly armed robber? “No, It didn’t matter.”