Bank robber nabbed in 7 minutes

A bank robber had seven minutes of freedom before being arrested by Kitsap County Sheriff’s Deputies on Tuesday morning.

According to Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Scott Wilson, 46-year-old transient Tristan R. Martinez walked into the Wells Fargo Bank on Mickelberry Road Northwest at about 11 a.m. and handed a bank teller a hand-written note that stated Martinez was demanding money.

The teller gave Martinez money and Martinez left the bank carrying the money in a trash bag. Eye witnesses saw Martinez, who is described as a Hispanic male, about 6-feet tall with a medium build and a mustache, running across the Best Buy parking lot.

At 11:07 a.m., a Wells Fargo worker called 911 and reported the robbery. The caller told sheriff’s deputies that Martinez was wearing a blue baseball cap, a red flannel shirt and whitewash jeans.

Deputies in the Silverdale Sheriff’s office and those who were on patrol in Silverdale were dispatched to the area surrounding the bank and began looking for Martinez.

A Sheriff’s deputy saw Martinez near the tire installation area of Costco within a few minutes of the call, Wilson said.

Martinez didn’t resist arrest and he admitted to the crime, Wilson said.

Martinez told deputies he robbed the bank because he was homeless and needed the money, Wilson said.

When Martinez was arrested at 11:14 a.m., he still had the note he used in the robbery and a trash bag full of money with him, Wilson said.

“We recovered it all,” Wilson said of the undisclosed amount of cash taken in the bank robbery. “I don’t think he had much of an opportunity to spend it.”

Martinez was taken to the Silverdale substation precinct where he was kept while the deputies gathered evidence, Wilson said. Martinez was booked for first-degree robbery. His bail was set at $100,000.

Although he did not use a weapon,

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