A box of Chicken of the Sea tuna and a lost wallet recently led to felony charges against a Spokane man suspected of robbing a medical marijuana patient at gunpoint.

Jesse Ryder Bender, 29, is in jail on $35,000 bond after appearing in Superior Court on two counts of unlawful imprisonment and two counts of first-degree robbery. He was arrested Feb. 21 after being released from jail Jan. 3 because prosecutors hadn't yet filed charges.

Bender was first arrested Dc. 30 while working at the High Nooner in downtown Spokane.

Detectives identified Bender as a suspect through a wallet left at the scene of the Dec. 28 robbery , in the 8000 block of E. South Riverway Ave. in Spokane Valley. Fingerprints on a box of Chicken of Sea also were identified as belonging to Bender, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Police say Bender asked a woman at the home if she'd ordered Chicken of the Sea when she answered the door, then forced his way into the home and gunpoint and tied the woman up. Her son had a medical marijuana card and maintained a small grow operation at the home.

Bender and another man not identified in court documents are accused of binding the woman and her other son with zip ties and stealing marijuana plants while the pot patient was at work.

Detectives discovered Bender's wallet in the grow room and contacted him at the sandwich shop, where he told them he may have lost his wallet on the bus.

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