Bank Robbery 101
John S. Burnett, Associate Editor
About 600 miles separate the cities of San Diego and Petaluma, California. Aside from a common state government, the two cities don't have much in common -- except the "Highway 101 Bandit."
The Provident Credit Union in Menlow Park, just south of San Franciso, was robbed Monday afternoon, December 10. Police said that the description of the robber fit that of the "Highway 101 Bandit," alleged to have hit at least 16 banks and credit unions from Petaluma to San Diego in the last two months, almost all along the busy historic U.S. Rte. 101 corridor (absorbed into Interstate 5 from Los Angeles south).
In the Menlow Park heist, the robber handed a teller a demand note and was seen walking away from the bank.
On Wednesday, December 12, police arrested Arthur Eli Cheney, a few hours after he allegedly knocked over yet another California bank -- this time away from the Route 101 corridor, in Fairfield. Although he was arraigned in Sacramento on one count of armed robbery, police and the FBI have tied him to the Highway 101 heists and others in California and Utah.
According to area news reports, Cheney had run tours to exclusive wine-tasting rooms in the Napa Valley in the last several years, but had been notably missing from the wineries since early in 2007. Although Cheney had seemingly "gone straight" after a prison sentence for a Wells Fargo bank holdup in the early 1990s, his son theorized that he may have reverted to bank robbery due to problems with diabetes and a lack of health insurance, according to one news report.
The California Highway Patrol officer who arrested Cheney said that he found an index card in Cheney's car reading "Robbery. 50s and 100s only." He said that Cheney surrendered without incident. One of Cheney's acquaintances at a Napa Valley winery looked at bank surveillance photos of one of the "Highway 101" heists and remarked that Cheney hadn't even attempted to disguise his identity.
First published on BankersOnline.com 12/18/2007
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