SEATTLE — George Zirkle, 21, is being held at King County Jail, accused of stealing $8,700 from a bank in Queen Anne on Jan. 29.
When Zirkle walked into the Verizon Wireless store on Fourth Avenue the day after the robbery, he caught one employee's eye. That employee told Matthew Gamel.
"He follows KIRO 7 on Facebook and there was security... surveillance screen shot of this guy walking out of the bank," Gamel said.
Gamel took a good look at the Facebook post and even asked another employee to look as well. They all agreed: their customer looked like the suspect in a robbery the day before. He called police.
"They're like, 'What's your emergency?'" Gamel said. "I explained, 'There's a guy in my store. I think he's the guy from yesterday ... who robbed a bank."
Police arrested Zirkle.
KIRO 7 obtained new court documents released this week that show Zirkle had previous felony convictions, including assault and burglary.
The records show he was released from a correctional facility in Monroe on Jan. 28, and was supposed to travel by bus to Vancouver and report to the Department of Corrections.
Instead, police said the day after his release he robbed the Wells Fargo bank in Queen Anne.
Only KIRO 7 was there as officers responded.
"He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, and handed it to the guy and said, 'I want to cash this check,'" eyewitness Cristine Harris said at the time, "And then the guy just grabbed a huge stack of cash and handed it over to him, and I was like, 'I think they're being robbed.'"
Police found $7,159 in two bundles of cash in Zirkle's backpack. He told them he found the backpack with the money already inside.
Gamel's glad his employee was checking his phone at the right time.
"I would have [had] no idea until I saw the picture," he said.