Martinez Police Chief Manjit Sappal and his team have been busy lately, descending on the Chase Bank branch on Alhambra Avenue Thursday to arrest a man who had just passed a note demanding money to a teller – doing so before the suspect had a chance to get his cash.
Chief Sappal says his team responded to a call for assistance from the bank at noon, cornering the would-be thief while he was still inside the bank. No injuries reported and no word of any weapons recovered so – good news.
The suspect was identified as 53-year-old Herman Lee Alexander of Concord. Alexander was booked into the Martinez Detention Facility for robbery and held on $100,000 bail.
Pretty darn quick work!!
It was, wasn’t it? Our thanks to Chief Sappal for taking a moment to fill us in on this one…
Never understood the reasoning behind robbing a bank. Very high risk of having what happened happen.
Were they standing behind him in line or something?
Sounds like an exciting lunch hour for the Chase Bank employees.
those poor tellers.
Always felt badly for the tellers, clerks, other workers who have this happen to them. Working for not much money and then staring at a gun someday. Glad there was no weaponry, violence involved in this instance.
At first I thought they were standing outside looking for their ATM cards!
Seems to me you have to be really really desperate to do something so dumb.
Kind of sad.
Hard to find anyone still in the bank robbery game. Most everyone has swung over to ID theft and car burglary.
I’ve always felt bad for bank tellers who are robbed, but most bank employees will never be victimized. And most bank robberies are by note. I’ve been told by tellers who were robbed by note that it’s “just another withdrawal.” Armed robbery would be very traumatic. The reason tellers deny the note robberies – they take it personally. Bank employees are taught “compliance” but like any job, not everyone complies.
I do very little in person shopping or banking any more for this very reason. You never know who’s in the bank or store with you or what they’re going to do once they’re inside. Also, I’ve noticed that people I would describe as “homeless” have become increasingly aggressive with people patronizing local businesses, both threatening them and demanding money from people. Is this something that has been brought to your attention?
Really glad no one was hurt. It seems that the people who do this almost expect to get caught.