Local News

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 banks in the weekend robberies were held up by a man with a threatening note. The amount of money taken was not disclosed.

Twenty-nine-year-old Ryan Joseph Beisley and 20-year-old Travis David Johnson were arrested and jailed pending formal bank robbery charges.

The FBI has dubbed this bank robber the “Cyborg Bandit.” Can you guess why? Here he’s pictured robbing a Bellevue Key Bank on Sept. 24. (FBI photo)

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 Woodinville, Shoreline and Bellevue.

He’s described as white, between 5-feet-9 and 6 feet tall, with a thin build. Despite the getup, there’s nothing bionic about him.

During the robberies, the FBI says he’s covered his face with a distinctive cloth and worn the hood of his sweatshirt over his head. He has also worn clear latex gloves.

Anyone with information on Cyborg is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous and are eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $,1000, according to the FBI.

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 1600 Queen Anne Ave. N. haven’t been released.

Surveillance photo of Bremerton bank robbery suspect. (Bremerton Police Department photo)

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 make this stuff up.”

According to police, Joshua James Driskell robbed the Key Bank branch on Wheaton Way and Sylvan Road in East Bremerton at 1:16 p.m. Wednesday by giving the teller a note demanding money and implying he had a firearm. He left with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

However, surveillance cameras captured images of his face and a bright blue Suzuki Forenza police say was used in the getaway.

Police said officers located the car at an apartment in Bremerton and found Driskell hiding in a back room in his apartment.

Investigators discovered that Driskell had been convicted of robbing the same bank on Sept. 24, 2010. In that case, he took a cab to the area, committed the robbery and was arrested a short time later, police said.

Driskell was convicted of second-degree robbery and sentenced to just over four years in prison, police said.

He served about three years with good time and was released from prison last month, police said. A warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to report to his state Department of Corrections probation officer.

“While it may seem funny, it was deadly serious to the victims at the bank,” said Strachan, “and our officers did a great job getting this felon off the streets within just a few hours.”

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 didn’t make it far. Police say the man was arrested one block from the bank.

Police did not say how they identified the suspect.

This Key Bank robber is a creature of habit, but no master of disguise. (King County sheriff’s photo)

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 teller a note demanding money.

On Monday, the same man was back at the bank around 3:45p.m.; he simulated a weapon and demanded money, the sheriff’s office says.

In each of the robberies the man left with an undisclosed amount of money.

The sheriff’s office says he is white, in his 30s, about 6 feet tall, with a slender build.

Crime Stoppers will pay a cash reward of up to $1,000 for any information leading to the arrest and criminal charges.

If you recognize him, call 1-800-222-TIPS.

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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. (more…)

Wanna know how not to rob a bank? Do what this man did:

Just after noon today, the man walked up to the Wells Fargo bank branch in the 1800 block of Broadway in Everett, pulled his shirt up over his face and walked inside, said Aaron Snell, a spokesman for the Everett Police Department. That drew the attention of passersby, who called police while the robber was in the bank.

When he ran out of the bank carrying cash, witnesses chased him. As the robber fled through the parking lot, he ran into a parked car and dropped the money, Snell said.

When police arrived, a group of around six people had tackled and detained the suspect, who was unarmed.

Police arrested him and expect to book him into jail today on suspicion of first-degree robbery.

The Olympian

The man suspected of the July 18 robbery of a bank in downtown Olympia has turned himself in, according to Olympia police.

Daniel Scot Stone turned himself in Wednesday to authorities in Mukiliteo, Olympia Police Lt. Jim Costa said.

Olympia police identified Stone as a suspect in the Timberland Bank robbery based on bank surveillance footage.

During the robbery, the suspect brandished a knife, then ran off with an undisclosed sum of cash.

Fingerprints found on a discarded water bottle led police to arrest two men on Monday who have been dubbed the “Big Top Bandits” in connection with a series of take-over style bank robberies, according to a probable-cause statement outlining the police case against the men.

King County District Court Judge Mark Chow on Tuesday set bail at $1 million for Jeffrey Pool, 48, a Texas fugitive who allegedly fled to the Seattle area after committing armed robberies in that state. Chow ordered Pool to be held on investigation of five counts of first-degree robbery and on a fugitive warrant from Texas.

Pool’s alleged accomplice, Luther Ray Leonard, 23, was ordered held on one count of investigation of first-degree robbery, with Chow setting his bail at $100,000. Leonard is a former University of Washington football player, according to the probable-cause statement.

Leonard’s girlfriend, Thidu Duch, spoke on his behalf, telling the judge Leonard was a coach at Juanita High School and runs a football camp for kids. He also played football at Evergreen High School.

“He’s never been in trouble; he went to the UW and he doesn’t have a bad bone in his body,” she said.

But Chow was still troubled by the seriousness of the allegations against Leonard, saying “there are cameras, he confessed to it … he had what appeared to be a weapon and pointed it at customers and tellers.” Leonard was allegedly armed with a realistic-looking BB gun, according to the probable-cause statement.

Pool’s sister also addressed the judge in an effort to convince him to release Pool or lower his bail, saying her brother had a tough childhood and grew up without a father. Chow responded that he knows plenty of single mothers whose children have not gone on to commit violent crimes.

On July 1, two men entered the Bank of America branch in Newcastle, pointed guns at customers and tellers, and “performed a take-over-style robbery of the bank,” fleeing with an estimated $47,000, according to the statement of probable cause.

Surveillance cameras at the bank and nearby businesses captured footage of the men, which showed them tossing away a plastic water bottle prior to the robbery, the statement says. Two sets of fingerprints were lifted from the bottle and positively matched to Pool and Leonard, it says.

On Monday, police executed a search warrant at the house the men share in Renton, arresting both of them, the statement says. A BB gun allegedly used by Leonard was found inside the residence, and a loaded 9 mm handgun was found in Pool’s room, it says.

Pool is also accused of committing four other armed bank robberies:

– Jan. 16 at the Key Bank in Newcastle

– Feb. 28 at a Key Bank branch on Rainier Avenue South in Seattle

– May 22 at the Washington Federal Bank on Rainier Avenue South in Seattle. One suspect fired a shot inside the bank, according to police.

– June 8 at the Sterling Savings Bank in Burien, where a bank teller was struck in the face by a suspect.

The FBI dubbed the men the “Big Top Bandits” because of their clothing, especially a variety of hats worn during each of the robberies.