j.m@talk
01-08-2006, 04:21 PM
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- Moments after a bank was robbed, police found a duffel bag full of cash - and the global positioning satellite device that bank workers had tucked inside.
The device used satellite signals to relay the location of the getaway minivan to police shortly after the Wednesday robbery.
The driver, Thomas R. Fricks, 38, was ordered held without bond Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrognio.
"You guys are good!" Fricks said as Spokane Police Officer Tim Moses arrested him shortly after the Washington Trust Bank branch robbery, according to documents filed in federal court.
During the robbery, a masked armed man herded three employees into the bank vault and threatened to kill their families if they didn't cooperate, the documents say.
A teller who was on the phone with her husband told him the bank was being robbed and to call police.
The masked robber threw a black duffel bag to another bank employee and said he wanted $40,000 "and no bait bills," according to the court documents.
The employee complied, stuffing in more than $37,920 in cash - and the GPS device.
Police recovered a black duffel bag containing a loaded BB gun and the missing cash from the minivan Fricks was driving, they said.
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The device used satellite signals to relay the location of the getaway minivan to police shortly after the Wednesday robbery.
The driver, Thomas R. Fricks, 38, was ordered held without bond Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrognio.
"You guys are good!" Fricks said as Spokane Police Officer Tim Moses arrested him shortly after the Washington Trust Bank branch robbery, according to documents filed in federal court.
During the robbery, a masked armed man herded three employees into the bank vault and threatened to kill their families if they didn't cooperate, the documents say.
A teller who was on the phone with her husband told him the bank was being robbed and to call police.
The masked robber threw a black duffel bag to another bank employee and said he wanted $40,000 "and no bait bills," according to the court documents.
The employee complied, stuffing in more than $37,920 in cash - and the GPS device.
Police recovered a black duffel bag containing a loaded BB gun and the missing cash from the minivan Fricks was driving, they said.
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