Local News

Here’s proof not every would-be 12th Man is a good guy. Or honest. Yesterday, just before 7 p.m., the guy in the Seahawks knit cap, pictured at right, robbed a Chase Bank branch inside the Fred Meyer store at 801 Auburn Way North in Auburn. The man is described as 6-foot-3 with a medium build. If you recognize this…

The FBI and local law enforcement agencies today announced the arrest of a 44-year-old Everett man suspected to be a serial bank robber. The man is believed to be responsible for 30 bank robberies in King and Snohomish counties, according to the FBI. The robber’s disguises while carrying out the stickups have earned him two nicknames: “Cyborg Bandit” and “Elephant…

Seattle police are looking for a man who robbed the Umpqua Bank on Broadway just after 5 p.m on Friday. The suspect walked up to a service counter and handed the teller a note indicating  he had a gun and that this was a robbery, police said. The teller handed the suspect some cash and the suspect…

The Associated Press Detectives investigating a string of weekend bank robberies in Oregon were in the right place at the right time. The investigators were at a bank inside a Fred Meyer store in Portland Tuesday evening when two men held up the institution. Robbery detectives arrested the two men as they attempted to escape. Police say the…

OK, it is Halloween, but this guy isn’t trick-or-treating. At least not in the normal sense. The FBI has dubbed this bank robber the “Cyborg Bandit” for obvious reasons. They say he has robbed at least four different banks in the past two months, most recently in Bothell on Oct. 23. He’s also hit banks in…

A man wearing what police describe as a “Halloween-style scream mask” robbed a Wells Fargo bank branch on Queen Anne Hill this afternoon. Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said officers quickly arrested the man, who was also wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt. Police initially said they were searching for a second suspect. Details about the robbery at…

A 24-year-old Kitsap County man was arrested on Wednesday in the robbery of a Bremerton bank — the same bank and same teller he was convicted of robbing three years ago, according to Bremerton police. “One month after getting out of prison, he robs the same bank,” said Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan. “You simply cannot…

An alleged bank robber was arrested this morning a short distance from the Capitol Hill bank police say he targeted. According to police, the man walked into a bank at Broadway East and East Thomas Street around 10:45 a.m. and passed a note to a teller. He walked out with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. But he…

The King County Sheriff’s Office is hoping you’ll recognize this guy.  A creature of habit, he’s suspected of robbing the same Burien Key Bank branch last month, most recently yesterday. The first robbery happened on Sept. 23 when he walked into the bank in the 17800 block of First Avenue South just before 1 p.m. and handed a…

TUMWATER, Thurston County — Employees at a Tumwater bank treated a customer from Tenino like a bank robber last week, tripping an alarm that resulted in police officers drawing guns and handcuffing him after he left the branch of Timberland Bank.

“I thought they were going to shoot me,” 59-year-old Thomas Budsberg said of his ordeal on the afternoon of Sept. 16.

Budsberg and a companion were released by police after they realized he had not robbed the bank and was not a bank-robbery suspect, The Olympian reported Thursday.

Timberland Bank CEO Michael Sand said he believes employees did nothing wrong during the encounter. Sand said employees at the bank were on alert for Budsberg because he had come into the bank in August, taken some brochures and left.

This was considered “odd” behavior on Budsberg’s part, Sand said. Sand said the branch on Trosper Road has been robbed before. “We want to protect our people,” he said.

Bank employees subsequently looked through CrimeStoppers photos of recent bank-robbery suspects and believed that Budsberg resembled one of them, Sand said.