19-year-old suspect in Bend holdup, attempted robbery caught in Sunriver
Police say they found stolen cash in his van
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A 19-year-old man who tried to rob one northeast Bend business, then held up another less than an hour later Saturday afternoon was spotted and arrested in Sunriver a short time later, with cash from the second crime, police said.
Around 3:15 p.m., an employee at Cash Connection on Northeast Fifth Street called Deschutes County 911 to report a suspicious male had just tried to rob the store, Sgt. Tommy Russell said.
The caller said the male entered the store, approached the cashier and asked for money from the register, but left without any, Russell said, adding that no weapons were displayed or seen.
The cashier provided officers with a description of the suspect and vehicle, a silver Dodge van, along with a partial license plate. Based on information from the investigation, officers identified the 19-year-old Central Oregon resident as a person of interest in the case.
About an hour later, a clerk at the Expressway Market & Gas Station at Southeast Reed Market Road and 15th Street called 911 to report a robbery had just occurred. The clerk said he knew the male who had just robbed the store and left with an undisclosed amount of cash, Russell said. Again, no weapons were displayed by the suspect or seen by witnesses.
Police believed the two incidents were related and sent an “attempt to locate” bulletin to all other law enforcement agencies in Central Oregon.
Shortly before 5 p.m., a Deschutes County sheriff’s deputy spotted the suspect’s van near the Circle K in the Sunriver Business Park on Venture Lane, Russell said. The deputy, assisted by Sunriver police, contacted the man outside the van and he was arrested.
A search of the suspect and the van found cash believed to have come from the robbery. No weapons were found on the man or in the van.
The suspect was taken to the county jail in Bend, facing charges of second-degree robbery, first-degree theft and menacing in the Expressway holdup and second-degree attempted robbery and first-degree attempted theft in the Cash Connection holdup try, Russell said.
