Heavily armed police surrounded a home near the Moraga Country Club Wednesday, calling out and arresting a man suspected of attempting to rob a Wells Fargo bank branch in Lafayette Tuesday afternoon.
Details remain sparse as police are still on scene but our Flash network and local readers lit up with reports of heavily armed police outside a home on Baltusrol Street.
Negotiators reportedly made contact with a local man inside the residence police believe was responsible for an attempted robbery at the Wells Fargo Bank branch, 3630 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, at 2:30p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
He was taken into custody without apparent incident at approximately 12:30pm Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Wells Fargo bank employees reported being approached by an Asian male who passed them a note demanding money and who may have used a cellphone to simulate a weapon – leaving the business when tellers declined to hand over cash.
The suspect, described as 5’7″ tall, 150-160 pounds wearing a baseball cap and blue backpack, walked out the rear of the bank and left the premises, police arriving to seal off and search the nearby BART station and outgoing cars but the man managing to slip away.
Investigators reportedly developed information that the suspect lived locally, tracing him to a Moraga address and – presumably – surveilling that residence until establishing his presence inside, calling him out to be met and arrested by heavily armed police Wednesday.
Neighbors reported seeing marked police cars from all three Lamorinda jurisdictions along with several unmarked units outside the Baltusrol Street residence, police equipped with ballistic shields and long guns.
Those green fees at MCC have gone up a lot
We’ll thatgot my attention!!
Really?
Uh-huh…
You don’t see this every day.
Thanks for alert. We thought Dillinger was back in town…
You bet! And Dillinger not involved…
Idyllic Moraga may be a distant memory.
Well, I live just down the road, and I have to take issue with that. Even our own would-be banditos are pretty compliant. “taken into custody without apparent incident”. No chase. No spike strips. Not competent in crime.
And, speaking of crime, somebody should investigate those HOA fees. They are murder.
Re: “HOA fees.”
Good one…
Should be “WHOA” Woesome HOA.
Name?
We have one but nothing official, yet…
Ye haw, nothing like a good bank robbery (attempted). Just like The Old West.
Wyatt
Firestone 11R
Bullet shields and rifles. You don’t see that in Moraga everyday
Sure you do! You just need to look in the right places. IYKYK!
Not a word from police
It’s interesting that when the criminals are from lamorinda/Walnut Creek the comments on here are mostly all jokey and lots of yucks. When the perps are believed to be from outside that area however the tone of the comments is that the world is coming to an end and we have to recall every elected politician and we don’t want to turn into these other cities etc etc.
I’ve been thinking about what you said, and while there’s some truth to it, there also seems to be some difference in the locally-grown criminals. They seem to be more bumbling and fail and definately rarer, while the ‘tunnel criminals’ are more skilled at it and violent. They usually succeed and leave injured people and damaged property behind them. You can’t kid too much about that.
When Lamorinda residents commandeer the Bay Bridge and start pulling people out of their cars and beating them, we won’t have a jokey response. Deal? Or do you have a solution to that? Is it poverty that causes people to close down freeways, drive pricey cars around in circles, and viciously assault innocent people who don’t share their skin color? Maybe you think that’s just “The Bay” or “restorative justice”.
My observation has to do with Lamo/WC and has nothing to do with what happens on the Bay Bridge, skin color or restorative justice LOL.
Jackson – Your original post explicitly compared Lamorinda/WC to areas outside of Lamorinda/WC. Are you saying the Bay Bridge isn’t outside Lamorinda?
Interesting news to some, I guess, that we are not all equally terrorized by crime. There was a recent police action in Moraga very near me. I did not see it. I did not hear it. I suffered no trauma from it. So, can I be amused by the incompetence of the alleged bank robber from Moraga who demanded money from a teller and left with nothing? Yes, I can see humor in that as well the misfortune of it.
All that is fine but not germane to my comment, that is if you meant it to be.
Well, true enough, I did not address the obvious racism of the expressed fear of outsiders, the fear of “others”, and I did not address the strongman “solutions” that this political feeling of victimhood invites. It’s just that I also have to laugh at the incompetence of the locals, the “bank robber” who leaves the bank with no cash, the President of the Chamber of Commerce who embezzles a couple hundred grand with no notice from the Mayberry Board, but still ends up in jail.
In the end, I don’t know if that kind of incompetence is more reassuring than alarming. Thank goodness for the gang of villains that can’t shoot straight.
lol. I actually filmed it happening today. I left the hardware store and I saw literally like 8 cars. 1 police car moraga, 1 police car Lafayette, 1 police car orinda, and the rest all black and tinted undercover. That struck my curiosity.
I stopped following when they got closer to a house. I didn’t want to get in trouble.
But interesting 1. Why didn’t they have this on film? or did they? I think so! 2. If the guy lives locally and people could describe him then he obviously didn’t disguise himself. 3. He didn’t have a gun and wasn’t forceful so the tellers told him no. 4. And he walked away after they said no and wasn’t intimidating enough or forceful.
Sounds like this person probably needs some prayers and mentally going through a hard time.
We’ve all seen movies and know what to do and not do.
It’s good they are following up. Not sure why 8 cars. But maybe just in case for back up.
The bomber years ago in Tennessee had a mental problem. His girlfriend reported him proactively to the fbi if you follow that story. They investigate but not hard enough. And then later he bombed a building.
Glad they went prepared and had back up if needed. And glad we caught the person if it was the person. And glad we can get to the bottom of it.
But yes for them to arrest there should be evidence etc. and maybe the fingerprinted were on the paper and they kept the paper. Who knows. They can’t say yes until they verify.
All this and not a word from the police, Not a nixel, not one alert except for runaways and planned burns. If it wasn’t for this site we wouldn’t know a thing about what’s happening in our own backyards. WTF
Dan,
Go read the “Hounds” post, a nice discussion concerning police communications.
Firestone 11R
Not the first time either.
The modern trend is for the thin blue line to treat “civilians” like growing mushrooms: keep them in the dark and feed them ****. Absolute contempt for the public’s right to know what is going on in their community. And regarding listening to scanners, which I guess to police seems to be impermissible “eavesdropping”, has it escaped everyone’s notice that more and more public agencies have moved to secured communications channels rending scanners more or less useless?
The alerts alone are worth every cent.
Totally unnecessary. Mental illness and depression was already reported to the police. He agreed to turn himself in peacefully, but they wanted their show.
Disagree. This was appropriate level of response. They could have easily deployed tactical units, a bearcat (or two).
You obviously don’t live here. I hear mooing. I hear racoons chittering at night sometimes. This arrest was nearby. I took no notice of this routine, compliant surrendering to proper authority. We remain no drama Boraga.
As a 28 year resident of LaMORinda I have to note that->
Unfortunately, stuff happens weekly, police calls in response of domestic violence, mental health issues, etc. Remember the Boraga resident that beat their neighbor then opened fire on the police, eventually shot himself in the backyard? Not that long ago.
We live here for the quiet and the general peaceful nature of the community, but people also can bring there problems here…
28 years in Moraga myself. I don’t know any local police officers, but I objected to characterizing a Moraga police action as a “show” as I have seen no evidence of attention-grabbing police work. I have observed the absence of “show”.
Loathe to interrupt conversation but for context – the Moraga operation was helmed by Lafayette PD with MPD officers on hand, of course, and special response people added for backup/perimeter containment, etc.
Butting out now, carry on…