TextDAYTONA BEACH -- Bank robber's checklist: Holdup note, check. Getaway driver, check. Full tank of gas in the getaway car . . .
Oops.
One gaffe made it much easier for police to catch two bank robbers who forgot to fill 'er up before a Tuesday heist at Riverside National Bank, Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.
Dietrich
Walker
"These are two of the dumbest people," Chitwood said Tuesday after suspects Jason Warren Dietrich, 35, and Randall Fredric Walker, 38, were arrested and charged with principal to bank robbery and bank robbery, respectively.
Tuesday night, they remained jailed on $50,000 bail each.
The pair arrived at the bank at Beville and Nova roads about 12:30 p.m. in Dietrich's green Jeep Cherokee, authorities said. Walker went inside and told the teller he had a gun and demanded $100 and $50 bills, according to police spokesman Jimmie Flynt.
When Walker came back to the Jeep, cash in hand, Dietrich stepped on the gas and they took off -- first heading north on Nova, then turning on Bellevue Avenue and heading east.
But that was short-lived, the chief said.
"They ran out of gas," he said, using a few colorful words to describe the intellect of the two suspected thieves.
At that point, Walker walked off and eventually paid someone $50 to drive him to his apartment on South Halifax Drive, investigators said.
Dietrich, however, strolled over to Bellevue and Beach Street and telephoned a friend, asking her to pick him up. That friend, identified only as "Joy," showed up at the intersection and drove Dietrich back to his abandoned Jeep at the 500 block of Bellevue, Chitwood said.
What Dietrich and his friend didn't know is that police had already driven by the gas-starved Jeep and figured out it belonged to someone who lived in the 900 block of South Peninsula Drive -- Jason Dietrich -- Chitwood said.
Then detectives had a serendipitous moment.
When they arrived at the Peninsula apartment building, they spoke with another man who told them he had just lent his sport utility vehicle to a woman named Joy. The man said Joy was on her way to pick up Dietrich, whose car had conked out.
Police waited for Dietrich and Joy at Bellevue.
When they arrested Dietrich, Walker's name was mentioned and police went to his apartment, Chitwood said.
"He answered the door," the chief said. "We found the money in his bathroom."
lyda.longa @news-jrnl.com
Oops.
One gaffe made it much easier for police to catch two bank robbers who forgot to fill 'er up before a Tuesday heist at Riverside National Bank, Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.
Dietrich
Walker
"These are two of the dumbest people," Chitwood said Tuesday after suspects Jason Warren Dietrich, 35, and Randall Fredric Walker, 38, were arrested and charged with principal to bank robbery and bank robbery, respectively.
Tuesday night, they remained jailed on $50,000 bail each.
The pair arrived at the bank at Beville and Nova roads about 12:30 p.m. in Dietrich's green Jeep Cherokee, authorities said. Walker went inside and told the teller he had a gun and demanded $100 and $50 bills, according to police spokesman Jimmie Flynt.
When Walker came back to the Jeep, cash in hand, Dietrich stepped on the gas and they took off -- first heading north on Nova, then turning on Bellevue Avenue and heading east.
But that was short-lived, the chief said.
"They ran out of gas," he said, using a few colorful words to describe the intellect of the two suspected thieves.
At that point, Walker walked off and eventually paid someone $50 to drive him to his apartment on South Halifax Drive, investigators said.
Dietrich, however, strolled over to Bellevue and Beach Street and telephoned a friend, asking her to pick him up. That friend, identified only as "Joy," showed up at the intersection and drove Dietrich back to his abandoned Jeep at the 500 block of Bellevue, Chitwood said.
What Dietrich and his friend didn't know is that police had already driven by the gas-starved Jeep and figured out it belonged to someone who lived in the 900 block of South Peninsula Drive -- Jason Dietrich -- Chitwood said.
Then detectives had a serendipitous moment.
When they arrived at the Peninsula apartment building, they spoke with another man who told them he had just lent his sport utility vehicle to a woman named Joy. The man said Joy was on her way to pick up Dietrich, whose car had conked out.
Police waited for Dietrich and Joy at Bellevue.
When they arrested Dietrich, Walker's name was mentioned and police went to his apartment, Chitwood said.
"He answered the door," the chief said. "We found the money in his bathroom."
lyda.longa @news-jrnl.com
