Female Bank Employee Puts Collar on Surprised Commode-Sitting Robber

A man who moments earlier had robbed the California Federal bank of $1,154 was apprehended Wednesday afternoon--by one of the bank’s female employees.

She was wearing high heels and a business suit.

She and another woman employee chased him through the streets of San Diego--while suspecting he might have a gun.

Julie Beckman, 25, was the one who caught him. Or rather, found him. At the time, he was sitting on the toilet inside an empty bus in the parking lot of the Greyhound terminal downtown.

She lifted him up from the commode and shoved him along the street, police said, until uniformed officers could take over and arrest the man.

By the end of the day, San Diego police were preparing a special commendation for Beckman and co-worker Carla Harper, 35.

It all started about 3 p.m., when a man wearing a jogging suit walked into the bank at 200 Broadway and demanded cash. He put his left hand inside his jacket, “simulating a gun,” police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

The teller handed over $1,154; the man walked, then ran, out the door. Harper, who went looking for him, saw him enter a cab. She walked up and told the driver the man had just robbed a bank. The robber bolted from the cab, running west on Broadway. He disappeared behind the Greyhound terminal at 120 W. Broadway.

Harper and Beckman gave up the chase and returned to the bank. After talking things over, Robinson said, they decided the man had to be at the Greyhound station. Searching an unoccupied bus, Beckman noticed that the bathroom door was shut. She pushed the door open and there the man was, Robinson said.

“Julie Beckman tells him, ‘You’re coming with me,’ ” Robinson said. “The man says, ‘Don’t touch me, or I’ll hit you.’ She grabs him and pulls him to his feet. She puts him in front of her. This is a 5-foot-5 attractive blonde wearing heels and a business suit. He’s maybe 5-foot-10.

“Officers took custody of him and found the $1,154 in his pocket.”

Thomas Allen Gardner, a 37-year-old transient, was arrested and booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center on suspicion of bank robbery, Robinson said.

“No gun was recovered,” Robinson said.

“While we don’t encourage such action, the women did show remarkable courage.”