The man accused of making a bomb threat while robbing a Waikiki bank last week — forcing police to close Kapahulu Avenue for a couple of hours while they searched his bag for explosives — dropped multiple clues to his identity during the heist, court documents say.
First, the robber signed his demand note and gave it to the bank teller. Then he flashed his debit card to the teller, although it was for the wrong bank.
Albert Michael Robledo, 45, was charged Friday with bank robbery in U.S. District Court in Honolulu in connection with the Thursday robbery at Bank of Hawaii.
Robledo’s motive was unclear, but others have committed bank robberies in Hawaii because they wanted to be housed in federal prison, unable to cope with the outside world, according to a federal public defender who has represented several bank robbery suspects in Hawaii. Robledo did not provide officials with a local address.
Robledo’s attorney, public defender Shanlyn Park, declined to comment.
According to an FBI affidavit, a man, described by witnesses as having a pockmarked face, walked into the bank on Kalakaua Avenue at about 1 p.m. Thursday and gave a teller a withdrawal slip that had written on it: “Put the money in the BAG or Bomb.” The withdrawal slip was signed “Alberto M. Robledo.”
The teller said the man gave her an American Savings Bank debit card, and she was able to see the card’s first name, Albert, before he took it back, the affidavit says.
The robber told the woman he wanted $5,000 and brandished a green knife, and the woman placed $2,000 into a white envelope and handed it over.
About 30 minutes later an officer spotted Robledo and called in a possible suspect sighting. Police arrested Robledo near Kapahulu Avenue and Castle Street at about 2:15 p.m. Police brought the teller to the scene, and she identified Robledo as the suspect, saying she would never forget his face.
Police closed Kapahulu for about two hours while a police bomb unit inspected Robledo’s bag, which sat next to the Ala Wai Golf Course fence. The road was reopened after 5 p.m. after police deemed the bag harmless.
Inside Robledo’s bag authorities found, among other things, clothes and the green folding knife used in the robbery, the affidavit says.
