Bail set for man accused of robbing Olympia Wells Fargo. Here’s how police got him
A 36-year-old man accused of robbing the Wells Fargo bank in west Olympia is being held in Thurston County jail in lieu of $53,000 bail.
Olympia police arrested Daniel Franklin Moore on Tuesday and he attended his preliminary hearing in Thurston County Superior Court on Wednesday.
During the hearing, temporary court commissioner Charles Houser found probable cause for first-degree robbery charges and set bail at $50,000. He added $3,000 for a separate case in which Moore is accused of unlawfully possessing heroin with intent to deliver.
A probable cause statement describes law enforcement’s investigation into the alleged robbery.
At about 11 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to the Wells Fargo branch at 1500 Black Lake Blvd. SW. Dispatch informed police that a man wearing a black puffy jacket and light-colored jeans took money from a bank teller and left on foot, according to the court document.
When police arrived, an officer contacted the bank teller and others began tracking the man south on Cooper Point Road toward a nearby auto mall.
The bank teller confirmed the description of the man, the statement says, adding that the suspect had extensive tattoos on both of his hands.
The teller told police the man had walked into the bank and presented a piece of cardboard with a handwritten note. The note said something to the effect of, “give me the money in the till, you have two minutes. Only 20s, 50s and 100s. Don’t look around and don’t activate the alarm,” according to the statement.
The teller complied and took out about $1,040 in $20 bills, per the statement. To stall, the teller reportedly attempted to count the money, but the man grabbed the bills and walked out.
As one officer interviewed the teller, another officer located a man on Cooper Point Road who matched the description the teller provided.
Upon noticing the officer, the man ran toward an area behind a nearby Volkswagen dealership by the train tracks.
Using surveillance photographs from the bank, police combed the area to look for the man, according to the probable cause statement.
They found the man who ran inside a tent, detained him and transported him to the Olympia police department, according to the statement.
Detectives later used a search warrant to look through the person’s tent, per the statement. Inside, detectives reportedly found $20 bills and the note used to demand money from the teller earlier.
Police identified the man they detained as Daniel Franklin Moore and booked him at the Thurston County jail for first-degree robbery “without incident.”
This was not Moore’s first run in with law enforcement. In March, he was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, heroin, with intent to deliver, according to court documents.
A probable cause statement from March describes the events that prompted the charge from the perspective of law enforcement.
On March 14, Olympia police sent a person undercover to purchase illegal narcotics from an unknown person at the Safeway parking lot on Harrison Avenue in west Olympia.
Police watched their buyer purchase what was later identified as a dark brown tarlike substance believed to be heroin from the unknown person, according to the statement.
Police contacted the person in a nearby Goodwill parking lot. This person told police he received the substance from a man known as “Bullet” at Yauger Park, per the statement.
Police contacted “Bullet” and identified him as Daniel Franklin Moore. After searching Moore, police recovered two bags of suspected heroin, one bag of suspected methamphetamine, cash and multiple baggies.
Judge John Skinner found probable cause and signed a warrant for Moore’s arrest on March 17, according to court documents.
Moore’s arraignment has been set for Nov. 23.
