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Police: Fake FBI agent rips off nearly $130k in 23rd/Jackson robbery

screen-shot-2017-02-01-at-1-01-07-pmA gunman wearing a suit who passed himself off as an FBI agent walked out of a 23rd and Jackson business with nearly $130,000 in cash in a heist pulled off last Wednesday night.

According to the SPD report on the incident, a worker at the unidentified “bank/savings and loan” was closing up for the night around 7 PM when the suspect knocked on a metal security gate, showed a badge, and said he was “FBI.” Once he was let in past the security gate, the phony agent told the worker he had conducted a “bad transaction” and asked to see the records for the day. “(The victim) pulled up his transaction record on the computer as S1 looked on,” the report reads.

The victim “was suspicious of S1 and asked to see proof of what he was there for. S1 produced a piece of paper titled ‘Search Warrant.'” The victim made a copy of the warrant and the fake agent then asked to see some boxes in the back behind another security gate. As the victim complied but began to grow more suspicious and question the agent, the suspect pulled a pistol and demanded the victim open the safe. Inside was $128,259.10 in cash, according to the SPD report.

The fake agent scooped up the cash and the computer the worker used to review the transaction log from the video surveillance system, threw it all in a black backpack, and then closed the metal gate to the back of the business, put on a pair of gloves, and took a lock from his backpack, placed it on the gate, and locked the victim inside.

At some point, a friend of the victim happened to stop by and knocked on the outer door. He told police the man in the suit answered and told him to come back in 10 minutes. He waited outside and said the suspect emerged a few minutes later, walking southbound through the parking lot, leaving on S. King. The friend then knocked again and the trapped employee was able to remotely unlock the outer door. The friend broke the security cage and freed the trapped worker. By the time police arrived, the suspect had been gone for around 15 minutes.

According to the report, the suspect may have cased the place the night before on January 24th. That night also around closing time, another employee said a man knocked on the gate and asked if they cashed checks. The employee told him they did not and the man left. He was described as a white male, around 35 with a muscular build, wearing a black beanie, a black zip-up hooded sweatshirt and jeans, and carrying a black cinch-type backpack.

UPDATE 2/2/17: A person familiar with the investigation tells CHS the business that was robbed is Red Sea Finance, a provider of financial services including money wiring. In 2012, a business with the same name was involved in a federal money wiring case in which a manager was alleged to have been part of illegally sending funds to Sudan. In 2013, the main charges in the case were dropped and the Red Sea manager received a deferred prosecution.

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Lloyd
Lloyd
7 years ago

I didn’t come in from the turnip fields yesterday, and though I’ve never worked at a bank, as a merchant I’ve dealt with banks and bankers for nearly 40 years. I have NEVER heard of a bank closing with only one individual on premises, and I’ve been told that no bank would ever let anyone in after hours for any reason until all cash was secured in the vault. Color me highly suspicious…

zeebleoop
7 years ago
Reply to  Lloyd

inside job.

Heryk Palapa
Heryk Palapa
7 years ago

they never said it was a bank…it was prob the weed store. They’re the only business that would have that much $ around.

Yaarp
Yaarp
7 years ago
Reply to  Heryk Palapa

they wrote it.

“a worker at the unidentified “bank/savings and loan”

Brian
Brian
7 years ago
Reply to  Heryk Palapa

There’s no pot shops on 23rd & Jackson. We do have two banks there tho, BoA and Chase, wonder which one was hit…

Paul
Paul
7 years ago

there’s no weed store at 23rd and Jackson…

JTContinental
JTContinental
7 years ago
Reply to  Paul

There is, however, a very tiny Chase bank there, and whenever I’ve gone in, there is only one or two people working.

citycat
citycat
7 years ago

The Bank of America at 23rd and Jackson has a gate that closes over the door and front windows. The creepy thing is that the perpetrator has a BOA computer. Hopefully they don’t allow customer info to be stored on the hard drive.

Del
Del
7 years ago

Wow. That robber has some balls. I’m glad the victim wasn’t killed. Is there security camera footage of his face?

Tyler
Tyler
7 years ago

Uh, you guys clearly do not live in the neighborhood. The BoA has been gone for A WHILE. And there are no pot shops, not to mention they said “bank/loan”. This was almost certainly the Chase bank on the SW corner of 23rd and Jackson.

Brian N
Brian N
7 years ago
Reply to  Tyler

Well in our defense the BoA was tucked away on the backside the Promonade :-D Either way, looks like all of our speculation was wrong, turns out it was some business called “Red Sea Finance”

CD neighbor
CD neighbor
7 years ago

There’s a news article up in KIRO now – it wasn’t Chase either, nor was it really a bank. It was Red Sea Finance, a business that allows people to wire money.