Hoodie Slip leads to bank robbery arrest
Alphonso Miguel Pazos – his hoodie has fallen to his right, exposing his face. He was recognized quickly after it was published.
A would-be bank robber was foiled by his hoodie—and San Rafael Police Detectives—in the course of twelve long hours on Friday. A man who turned out to be San Rafael resident Alphonso Miguel Pazos, 56, walked into the San Rafael CitiBank at 1004 Northgate Drive at 11:07 a.m. on Friday with a weapon, and left feeling much richer, according to a San Rafael Police Department press release.
Pazos waved around an air pistol that he had altered, and left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money in hand. No one was injured in the incident. Unfortunately for Pazos, however, he adjusted his hoodie during the robbery, exposing his naked face to the surveillance cameras in the bank.
Officers of the SRPD isolated Pazos’ image and distributed it to aid in their identification of the suspect within an hour and a half of receiving the tape, according to SRPD Public Information Officer Margo Rohrbacher. The Marin Independent Journal published the photograph and quickly yielded a result—SRPD received a tip that led to the identification of Pazos at around 4:00 that afternoon.
Pazos had used an altered air gun pistol to rob this CitiBank in San Rafael.
When detectives learned that Pazos was holed up at a Santa Rosa hotel in the 3300 block of Santa Rosa Avenue, Rorhbacher said, they staked out the building with support from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, which has jurisdiction over the area. Their patience paid off—at 10:00 that evening, Pazos left the hotel accompanied by two unnamed people, and the three of them climbed into two separate cars.
Police stopped both vehicles and took all three parties into custody. They found money and the air pistol that Pazos had brandished at the bank.
Pazos and two accused accomplices were hiding out in a Santa Rosa motel and were captured leaving the premises.
Police booked Pazos into Marin County Jail on bank robbery charges with bail set at $75,000. The two others arrested with him have been charged with aiding and abetting. “At this point, I don’t know anything more about them or what their connection is,” Rohrbacher said of the unnamed suspects, who will be identified once police learn more about their involvement in the case.
Read More:
Marin Independent Journal: San Rafael police arrest three suspects in Terra Linda bank robbery
NBC Bay Area: Three Arrested in Connection to San Rafael Bank Robbery
