Man in Wheelchair Accused of Holdup

A 75-year-old man in a wheelchair who said he needed money for medicine robbed a downtown bank of $75 Tuesday after threatening to detonate a bottle of nitroglycerin, police said.

During the robbery attempt at the headquarters branch of HomeFed Bank, the man, who drove a motorized wheelchair, apologized to the teller but explained that he had an urgent need for the cash, police said.

“I’m sorry,” police said the suspect told the teller, “I need the money for medicine.”

A short time later, police arrested the man two blocks away, where he had been tailed by a bank security guard.

Instead of nitroglycerin, an explosive, the suspect carried only a bottle containing what appeared to be prescription pills, said Lt. Jerry Moody of the San Diego Police Department.

The suspect was identified as William Hart, 75, who lives in a fourth-floor, one-room flat at the Maryland Hotel, which rents rooms to senior citizens and “budget-minded” travelers. The hotel is two blocks from the bank. Hart had lived in a $425-a-month room at the hotel for most of the past year, according to fellow residents.

No details were immediately available on the suspect’s background or the nature of his ailment.

San Diego police turned Hart over to custody of the FBI, which investigates bank robberies.

Police gave this account of the incident: A man in a wheelchair entered the bank at 625 Broadway at 11:25 a.m., approached a teller and demanded money. When the teller asked if this was a robbery, the man said it was and threatened to blow up the bank with nitroglycerin. After being handed about $75, the man wheeled around and left the bank. The security guard followed.

At the Maryland Hotel, fellow residents expressed shock that Hart might be mixed up in a bank robbery.

“I didn’t know he was that desperate,” said Sid Dunn, 79, who lives in a room across the hall from Hart.

Dunn described Hart as “real honest,” noting that he quickly repaid the $5 he had borrowed from Dunn about a month ago. Hart seldom spoke about himself, according to Dunn, who said he usually chatted with his neighbor each day. Dunn said he assumed that Hart lived on Social Security disability payments.

Although Hart had few friends, neighbors said that he did visit regularly with a range of acquaintances in the lobby of the 285-room hotel. Fellow residents expressed disbelief that his financial predicament had become so dire.

“If he needed money, he should have come to me,” said Dunn, who spoke during an interview at his room. “I would have loaned it.” That sentiment was also voiced by others.

Harriet Howard, 70, said Hart had given two little girls a ride on his wheelchair in the hotel lobby Monday. “He wasn’t feeling very good,” Howard said, adding that Hart, who has failing eyes, had asked her to read portions of a book to him.

“I had no idea he needed it (money),” Howard said Tuesday as she waited for Hart in the lobby, unaware that he had been arrested until so informed by a reporter. She had intended to inform him of the name of a bookstore that might carry a title that Hart was interested in reading.