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Good Samaritans tackle bank robber

Everett, Wash. — A bank robber's flight from justice was thwarted by four good Samaritans -- most of them strangers -- who jumped into action and held him for police.

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Jeremy Standifird of Edmonds spotted the man just before 1 p.m. Tuesday going into Wells Fargo Bank at 18th and Broadway in Everett. A white T-shirt was pulled up to his nose. When the man left, Standifird asked bank employees what he had done, and was told he had just robbed them.

"So I sprinted after him and told him to stop," Standifird said.

But he kept going -- and ran right into a truck being driven by Treacy Frye of Marysville.

"I was moving at about 25, I was doing the speed limit," said Frye. "He hit it, boom, so he just kind of slid down."

And the loot, which was in a basket, went flying.

"There was literally 20-dollar bills everywhere," Frye said. "The money went up like -- it was crazy."

About that time Frye heard Standifird yell, "Stop him! Stop him." So he pinned the crook to a tree.

That's when Evan Slack from Enumclaw stepped in.

"I was chasing him (so that was) long enough for me to pull him down from his neck," Slack said, "You know, bounced him off the tire."

But as he struggled to get free, Slack saw a "silver flash, I was like crap, he's got a knife. Get the knife. Get theknife."

His boss, C.J. Sieveot, obliged.

"It was a kitchen knife," he said, his hands outstretched, "about that long."

They held him for Everett Police. He was taken to a local hospital to be checked out and was expected to be booked into the Snohomish County Jail on first-degree robbery charges.

Slack and Standifird savored the moment. "He picked a bad day to rob," Slack laughed, "because he's active duty Navy and I'm an ex-football player."

"It was a pretty extraordinary afternoon," agreed Treacy Frye.