Alert Goodwill employee helps police nab two-time bank robbery suspect
Jan 18, 2026, 10:13 AM
Police say this bank robbery suspect accidentally dropped his demand note in a changing room at a Goodwill store, which led to his arrest. (Photo: Seattle Police Dept.)
(Photo: Seattle Police Dept.)
An alert Goodwill employee helped police nab a careless bank robbery suspect hours after a heist on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
On Friday, a man with a gun walked into the Columbia Bank on Broadway and handed a teller a note demanding money.
He got away with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Witnesses say he took off on foot.
Police arrived and processed the suspect’s fingerprints at the crime scene, but were unable to arrest the man.
A couple of hours later, the Seattle Police Department says a very helpful employee at the Capitol Hill Goodwill Store called 9-1-1 after finding a note in a changing room that was obviously a bank robbery demand note.
Police arrived at the store and immediately started looking at security footage of people entering the store.
They quickly found surveillance video of a man considered a suspect in the robbery at Columbia Bank.
Seattle police also released this image of the bank robbery suspect. (Photo: Seattle Police Dept.)
Several officers flooded the area in and around the store.
Eventually they tracked the man down, made the arrest, and recovered the stolen cash.
Officers transported the suspect to police headquarters for questioning.
Police say it’s likely the robbery at Columbia Bank was not his first holdup.
As detectives interviewed him during their investigation, they determined the 49-year-old man is also a suspect in another robbery, at the downtown Boeing Credit Union on 6th Ave., which took place a day earlier.
