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Source: Armored-car bandits 'same guys' from earlier heist

The two men who stole thousands from an armored car Thursday also robbed another armored car in October.

CURIOUS AS to how the bandits in Thursday's armored-car heist pulled it off so easily?

Experience, at least according to a law-enforcement source close to the investigation.

The suspects in that robbery, which occurred about 9 a.m. in the parking lot of the TD Bank on Frankford Avenue near Magee in Mayfair, are the "same guys" who allegedly ripped off another armored car in October, according to that source.

In that earlier heist, three men wearing "Scream" masks made off with $310,000 from a Wells Fargo branch on Frankford Avenue near Rhawn Street, about 2 miles away from Thursday's incident.

Those masked men wielded semiautomatic rifles during the caper, just as the suspects did in Thursday's heist, according to that source.

The investigation into the more-recent robbery continued yesterday, with investigators from the FBI and police serving a warrant inside a home on 42nd Street near Pennsgrove in West Philadelphia, said Carrie Adamowski, an FBI spokeswoman.

It was the second property searched in the course of the probe. Investigators carted off some of the stolen cash and other items from an apartment on Henry Avenue near Palairet Road in Roxborough late Thursday, Adamowski said. A Cadillac Escalade apparently used by the suspects to escape was also taken from that location.

The woman who rents that apartment was questioned and later released, Adamowski said.

No arrests had been made as of last night.

A Police Department source told the Daily News that a double-shooting in Crescentville may be linked to Thursday's heist.

In that attack, two men were abducted from another location in the city and dumped on Newtown Avenue near Godfrey, an isolated, one-way street.

One victim, Carl Johnson, 29, died of his wounds, while another victim, a 26-year-old man, remained in critical condition last night at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Both were found shot multiple times by officers and had been bound with duct tape, Chief Inspector Scott Small said at the scene.