Parking ticket led police to ‘Roscoe Bandit’ suspect

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, was robbing Numerica Credit Union in downtown Spokane on Nov. 7, he didn’t pay for his parking at a meter on Post Street in front of Spokane City Hall.

After the robbery, police pieced together surveillance video and determined that the robber walked through River Park Square 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 past few weeks, said city spokesman Brian Coddington.

The parking officer wrote the car a ticket because the meter was expired. That led to his arrest on Wednesday in Grants Pass, Ore.

Officials have called the bank robber the “Roscoe Bandit” because of the kind of gun he sometimes used.