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Uploaded: Thursday, September 20, 2012, 1:16 PM
Updated: Saturday, September 22, 2012, 10:21 AM
Federal parolee arrested in Sept. 11 Bank of America robbery
Seized while driving on Black Avenue in car spotted at robbery site
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by Glenn Wohltmann
Pleasanton Weekly Staff
Photos
 
| An Oakland man on federal parole for bank robbery was arrested Wednesday as a suspect in last week's robbery of the Bank of America branch at 6005 Stoneridge Drive at Hopyard Road Sept. 11.
Royland Rice, 59, was seized while driving on Black Avenue near Via Espada after police spotted a vehicle matching the brown, '70s era Ford Ranchero with a white camper shell used during the holdup.
Police did not release the location of the stop, which occurred at 8:40 a.m., although a news release said, "During the investigation, Officers discovered evidence connecting Rice with the bank robbery."
Rice was arrested on one count of forcible robbery and booked at Santa Rita Jail.
He used a threatening note in the holdup, according to police. That's the same motive Rice used in the early 2000s, when he was dubbed "the potbelly bandit" who police at the time described as "having kind of a beer gut on him," according to a June 13, 2001 article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Rice was arrested for robbing more than a dozen banks in San Ramon, San Francisco, Albany, Fremont, San Leandro, Berkeley, Union City and San Lorenzo in a four-month spree between April and June 2001.
In his June 2001 arrest, Rice -- who was already on parole for prior bank robberies -- was caught in a car with an expired registration at Eastshore State Park in Berkeley. A federal warrant for his arrest had already been issued after a botched June 4, 2001, robbery attempt in Orinda where he dropped a credit card with his name on it as he fled. In that botched robbery, a teller pretended she couldn't read the note he passed, which read, "Holdup -- 50s and 100s," according to court records from the 2001 case.
Rice was convicted in 1990 for robbing four banks in Berkeley, Richmond and Union City and was sentenced to serve the maximum, 115 months, in that case. No information on his 2001 conviction was available.
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Posted by mooseturd, a resident of the Pleasanton Valley neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 6:52 pm
mooseturd is a member (registered user) of PleasantonWeekly.com Nice police work. Awful performance on the part of our Courts and Judges. This guy robbed a dozen banks in San Francisco, Albany, Fremont, San Leandro, Berkeley, Union City, San Lorenzo, and San Ramon. Did I mention Orinda? Then they paroled him to a drug rehab business (scam). He walked. This was 1999.
The parole board and the judge should be required to pay the losses to the banks and send $25,000 to each city where this goof ball is known to have committed crimes.
Some people whine about the cost of keeping these criminals in jail. Do they realize the cost of having them on the street?????
I can't seem to provide the link to sfgate from 2001 with much of the information. GO to the Chronicle and search for "pot belly bandit".
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Posted by Fred, a resident of the Birdland neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 7:34 pm Can't help but think bringing BART to Pleasanton had something to do with this. Thanks for nothing Obama!
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Posted by commonsense, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 9:25 pm Its called outstanding police work by the men and women of the Pleasanton Police Dept. Fred lets not over analyze things the Bart station had nothing to do with this nor did the president. Stop trying to turn excellent Police work into a Political Forum. Thank you PPD for all you do and for keeping our community safe, your hard work allows us all to sleep better at night!!!
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Posted by Anonymous, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 3:56 am And they say nothing happens in Pleasanton and the cops just mess with speeders.
Great job as always Pleasanton PD!
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Posted by David, a resident of the Pleasanton Valley neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 9:42 am
If he robbed the bank on September 11th and they just made the arrest this week he had been trolling Pleasanton for a while. I saw the car parked on Black across from the park and all of the officers taking pictures of the back of the vehicle. This was just on Monday with a lot of kids walking to school on that route. Scary. Bart has nothing to do with this. Last I heard BART doesn't allow cars on their trains. Good job PPD.
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Posted by Carlos, a resident of the Highland Oaks neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 10:32 am Winter is coming. Old Royland just wanted to get back inside where it's warm. Why else would he drive a easily recognized car and then hang around town until he was arrested.
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Posted by DFR, a resident of the Birdland neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 10:33 am This guy must have been trying to get caught.
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Posted by SFM, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 11:17 am We continue to be plaged by liberal judges, lefty loons howling about incarerating crooks, left loons insisting we build country club prisons instead of having hardened criminals busting rocks, and parole boards gone wild. This guy should never have been paroled.
Now we find out that one of the Gitmo terrorists, that the Bush Administration let loose because the left loons were raising such a ruckus about Gitmo, is likely the leader of the attack on our Libiyan consultate. And, His Highness Obama and Her Highness Clinton are now floating leaks that may release the Blind Sheik responsible for the first attack on the World Trade Center, because the Egyptian terrorists are demanding it. Is Obama completely out to lunch or just plain sinister?
God save us from the Socialist-Muslim Alliance.
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Posted by AKM, a resident of the Downtown neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 7:43 pm Are you kidding, SFM?
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Posted by Remember This, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 11:16 pm Remember all the Democrat politicians that keep screaming about over-incarceration of their friends. Remember how these same people go on and on about how unfair the three-strikes law is. Folks, we put these people into office and we can get them out. Think carefully before you vote in a few weeks.
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