Police: Bank robbery note was on grocery receipt

BEND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon police affidavit says a robber at the Home Federal Bank two weeks ago demanded money by giving the teller a note written on the back of a grocery receipt.

It was only part of the receipt, Bend Detective Jeff Frickey said in the affidavit, but it had the last four digits of a food stamp account and the account balance — enough to get investigators going.

State records provided a name to go with the account number, the Bend Bulletin reported (http://bit.ly/RrIZP8), and an online search of the name turned up a pawn shop transaction with a telephone number.

A service provider then came up with the coordinates of the phone, the Stillwater Campground in Central Oregon.

That, the affidavit said, is where 54-year-old Robert Short was arrested on theft and robbery charges.

At an interview afterward, Frickey's affidavit said, Short denied the charges, saying he never keeps receipts and would have thrown it in the trash, where anyone could have picked it up.

He also said that a hitchhiker must have stolen a black stocking cap that police kept as evidence after it was knocked off when the robber and a bank client struggled during the April 24 holdup, the affidavit said.

Police told Short his DNA was on the cap.

A plea hearing is scheduled May 27.

Short was held without bail at the Deschutes County Jail. It could not be determined immediately Wednesday whether he has a lawyer.

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Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com

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Students filming fake robbery almost get in real police shootout

Students filming a fake robbery looked a little too real to police, and their movie project almost turned into an actual shootout.

It all started, local station CBS2 reports, when passerby Linda Bergslien thought she was witnessing a robbery at Classic Coffee in Glendora, Calif., where the filming was taking place Thursday morning.

She immediately called 911.

“They had masks on, and the one had a gun in his hand, and it was clear they were ready to enter the building,” she told CBS2.

A sergeant and two officers arrived and they thought it was the real thing, too. They shouted for the students to drop their weapons and get down on the ground, but one student froze and didn’t drop his (toy) gun.

Capt. Tim Staab of the Glendora Police Department told CBS2 that one of the officers got ready to shoot just as his partner was able to take the gun from the student.

“When he didn’t drop the gun, one of the officers reached out and pulled the gun out of his hand,” Staab said.

Then one of the officers noticed a camera.

“You’re shooting a short film?” an officer is heard saying. “In a store with a man with a gun?”

Glendora police said the students had not obtained a permit to film, so the shoot was news to them.

“It was extremely reckless,” Staab says, “and thank goodness our officers responded in the right way.”

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