Jail Becomes Last Stop for Would-Be Robber

This is a story about a woman too short on cash to bother robbing, and the would-be thief who rode with her right into the hands of the law.

Marina Daniels was standing at a Vista bus stop Wednesday when she faced the terror of a lifetime: a man wielding a 4-inch dagger, demanding all her money.

The 42-year-old woman reached into her purse and offered everything she had: a handful of coins.

The man looked at it, looked at her, looked again at the money, and shrugged. Without touching the money, he walked away, leaving her alone.

When the bus came, she got on it. So did the robber wanna-be.

Daniels got off at the Vista Transit Center, leaving the man sitting in the back seat. She notified a North County Transit District security officer, who boarded the bus, detained the suspect, and called a sheriff’s deputy.

Within minutes of the incident, the man, identified as Rafael Rios Hernandez, 31, a transient, was under arrest.

On Friday, he was arraigned on felony counts of possessing a concealed dagger and attempted robbery, and a misdemeanor count of threatening a person with a dagger.