SPD has released details of how they apprehended a suspect in the New Year’s Eve bank robbery on Broadway and… well… here, we’ll let the police explain it:
Sometimes tracking down a suspect just takes a stroke of luck.
Just after 5:30 pm on New Year’s Eve, a man wearing a black hoodie walked into the US Bank near Broadway and E. John Street and handed the teller a note, which said the suspect had a bomb and wanted cash.
After the teller handed over the money, the suspect fled the bank.
The suspect was gone by the time police arrived, but officers were able to get pictures of the hoodie-clad man from the bank’s surveillance system, and circulated his photo at the East Precinct.
The next day, just after 12:30 pm, a woman flagged down two officers on patrol near E. Pike Street and Bellevue Avenue. The woman told officers she had seen a man lying in the entryway to a car dealership at 11th and Pike, “having a good time with himself.”
Officers found the man sitting in the doorway, and realized he looked a lot like the guy from the bank robbery.
When officers approached the man and mentioned they’d gotten a complaint that he was “playing with himself” in public, he told them he’d simply been trying to hide money in his pants.
At this point, officers were pretty sure this was the same guy from the bank robbery a day earlier, matched him up with the surveillance pictures, and arrested him.
They found a bunch of money crammed into his pockets and hidden in the soles of his shoes.
Officers brought the suspect down to headquarters to meet with detectives, who booked the man into the King County Jail for investigation of robbery.
Original report: Details are expected later today on a New Year’s Eve robbery of the US Bank on Broadway.
The hold-up at Broadway and E Olive Way reportedly involved a weapon or a note implying a weapon and took place in the early evening hours as revelers prepared for a night of celebration. SPD is slated to release details of the robbery later this morning.
The bank has been targeted by bandits before. In summer 2011, this Yankees fan made a Harvard Ave getaway from his attempt to hold up the bank.
Though banking outlets have proliferated along Broadway and on Capitol Hill in the past year, the area hasn’t seen a great deal of hold-ups. The last major incident we are aware of happened in May at the Wells Fargo branch inside the Safeway at 15th and John.
The Broadway robbery likely pales in comparison to this New Year’s Eve heist of $1.3 million in gadgets from a Paris Apple store.
I guess the only thing surprising here is that that branch doesn’t get robbed more often than it does. Its the oddest of bank setups, no teller windows, just a low counter that anyone can reach across and grab whatever they want, why would robbers even bother with a note, not to mention their putting their customers at risk counting out everyone’s cash on top of the counter for the world to see. Seems like the only possibity is that this is some kind of wierd reverse psycology experiment on the perps who are supposed to be flummoxed by the “…what’s the catch, this is too good to be true..” vibe and take off for more conventional banks that look like they might be protecting some money or something valueable. Anyway I just hope they get appropriately sued when some poor teller or customer gets shot or stabbed someday by some miscreant who’s not sophisticated enough to appreciate their silly reverse psycology gig.
Uhhhh
so. I don’t think they really care. Banks have insurance now. They probably only really do security as much as their insurance requires. The employees are supposed to comply with robbers because the money can be easily replaced, but if someone gets injured there may be medical bills and law suits on top of it.
The ‘catch’ is that you’re on camera, the money is insured. Most of the money is not easily accessible anyways, so you won’t get a crazy amount of money. They’ll probably find you eventually.
Just to clarify, it’s not regular insurance that banks have against robbery, it’s the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That means, if you rob a bank, it’s a federal crime (and has been since 1934) and the FBI is automatically involved. When they’re on you’re tail, you might get away with one or two robberies (probably not, though) but they will eventually get you. I’ve got cousins on both sides of this question and they both agree on this point.
And the policy of bank employees not resisting and following instructions of bank robbers works. In 2011, there was not a single death of a bank employee or customer during a robbery in the US.