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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Parking ticket helps nab alleged Spokane bank robber

Surveillance video shows the so-called “Roscoe Bandit,” armed with a firearm, robbing the HomeStreet Bank on Broadway East in Seattle on July 28.
On top of the years in prison he faces after he was accused this week of robbing four banks in Washington, the man the FBI believes is the “Roscoe Bandit” owes the city of Spokane $15. Police believe that while William Mitchell, 55, allegedly was robbing Numerica Credit Union in downtown Spokane on Nov. 7, he left his parking meter on Post Street in front of Spokane City Hall unplugged. After the robbery, police pieced together surveillance video and determined that the robber walked through River Park Square – leaving a jacket behind on a bench – and eventually to a car parked outside City Hall, police said in a news release. Police contacted the city’s parking enforcement division to ask if anyone remembered the car. In fact, a parking officer did remember the sedan. It was hard not to, said Spokane’s parking manager, Dave Steele. “It was a screaming yellow,” Steele said. The image of the driver was captured thanks to new security cameras installed outside City Hall in the last few weeks, said city spokesman Brian Coddington. The parking officer, whom Steele said prefers not to be named, wrote the car a ticket because the meter was expired. That led to Mitchell’s arrest on Wednesday in Grants Pass, Ore. The parking officer did not come in contact with the driver while she was writing the ticket. Early in the investigation of the robbery of Numerica Credit Union, 502 W. Riverside Ave., Sgt. Jason Reynolds recognized the robber he saw in surveillance as the “Roscoe Bandit,” who robbed three banks in Western Washington earlier this year, the police news release said. Officials have called the bank robber the “Roscoe Bandit” because of the kind of gun he used in some of the robberies. Will the city ever get its $15 for the ticket? “There’s nothing that would cause it to be dismissed,” Steele said, But Steele added that he doesn’t expect the fine to be paid anytime soon. “If he gets three more, we could boot his car.”