John Stacey Roller
Santa Barbara County – Considering the fact that so many financial transactions now take place online through our exponentially-expanding technological resources, and that more people are doing their personal banking simply by pushing keys on their smartphones, the very notion of a criminal actually walking into a brick-and-mortar bank and expecting to depart with a sack full of currency seems almost quaintly anachronistic.
But when a man walked into the City of Buellton’s branch of Rabobank in the early afternoon of February 5th and appeared to threaten harm to bank staff should he fail to be given the cash demanded, anachronistic as it may have been by any standard—the principal one being a successful escape by the crook—it was an impressive success.
But it was a short-lived success, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, who reported that John Stacey Roller, 46, had been arrested the following day pursuant to “a citizen’s tip regarding a man who matched the suspect’s description.”
When this concerned citizen observed “a suspicious subject” just a short distance from the bank allegedly robbed, SBSD’s Lt. Craig Bonner reported that deputies immediately “converged upon the area” just as “a second community member called sheriff’s dispatch” to report a man hiding in bushes just blocks away from the crime scene.
It didn’t take long for deputies to swarm the area and make contact with Roller, who was detained and subsequently taken into custody without incident.
Pursuant to witness interviews and identification of Roller, he was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on suspicion of robbery, with his bail set at $100,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail booking
