New details emerge in Bend credit union, bank robberies
A 28-year-old man who held up a northeast Bend credit union last week told authorities later why he did it, and about the 40-minute shopping spree he went on before police caught him, trying to hide behind a newly bought Christmas tree, The Oregonian reported Wednesday.
The newspaper reported the details provided by Brett Gillispie-Comstock came from a criminal complaint written by an FBI special agent.
The agent quoted Gillispie-Comstock as saying went to a Selco Community Credit Union twice on Dec. 16, the second time going up to a teller, saying he wanted to open an account and handing her a note demanding $5,000. He said he did so because he and his mother lost $400 gambling and they needed money for rent, Christmas presents and a Christmas tree.
According to the complaint, after fleeing with $1,373 in an envelope (and telling the teller, “I hope you have really good holidays,”) the robbery suspect said he went first to a nearby NAPA Auto Parts store and bought a can of spray paint.
Then it was on to the nearby DiamondTree medical marijuana dispensary, where he bought a beanie hat and goodie, then to the Bend Pet Express and bought doggie treats, then some food at Jimmy John’s — and then bought that Christmas tree. He was trying to hide his face in and behind the tree when officers found and arrested him in the parking lot by the Barnes and Noble bookstore.
The paper reported that Gillispie-Comstock allegedly gave police more than $700 he hid in a boot, then led them to nearly $500 he’d hidden behind the auto parts store.
Gillespie-Comstock remains lodged at the Deschutes County Jail on theft, robbery and other charges, held without bail on a probation violation. He’s due back in court next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Bend’s other holdup, last Friday, Tillamook County Sheriff Andy Long confirmed to the Tillamook Pioneer that Thomas Alden Henderson worked as a Tillamook County sheriff’s deputy for much of the 1990s and ran unsuccessfully against then-Sheriff Tom Dye twice, once in 1992 and again in 1996.
The online news source said Henderson lived in Twin Rocks until he retired in the early 2000s, when he and his wife moved to La Pine. His wife, Helen, who died in 2008, at one time owned the former Bum-Bee’s Cafe in downtown Nehalem.
Henderson was released from the Deschutes County Jail later that day, under a judge’s order that officials could not detail due to HIPAA federal patient privacy regulations. A jail officer said it was temporary and that he would return to jail at a later date to face the charges.
