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72 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Britt Festival Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Biz Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 25, 2005 Medford police forensic technician Keith Ostrander dusts a Gatorade bottle for fingerprints Tuesday, looking for clues to the identity of a man who robbed Evergreen Federal bank at about 10:17 a.m. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven ‘Weird’ bank heist solved By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune A man robbed the Evergreen Federal bank Tuesday in east Medford after first loitering several minutes in the bank parking lot, where employees watched him munch Blue Diamond almonds and down a quart of Gatorade, authorities said. As he left the bank at 10:17 a.m. with an undisclosed amount of cash, the thin man who did not bother to wear a disguise told tellers to call police and that he would wait outside for them, police said. Employees saw the robber stand briefly beneath the same shade tree where he left his lemon-lime Gatorade bottle and almond tin in the lot at 501 Crater Lake Ave. He then walked behind a Little Caesars Pizza semi-truck parked adjacent to the bank and disappeared. "That’s more than an unusual M.O.," Medford police Lt. Mike Moran said an hour after the robbery. "I’d say ‘weird’ is the best description. "We’re not sure if he’s trying to taunt us or if he wanted to go to jail and changed his mind or what," Moran said. Advertisement But that was before the bank surveillance cameras showed the brazen robber was Monty Clifford Smith. By 3 p.m., police easily captured the 52-year-old transient minutes after he checked into a Medford hotel and arrested him on a charge of second-degree robbery, just like they did at his insistence a decade ago. In December 1995, Smith entered the Valley of the Rogue bank, demanded cash from a teller, then demanded the teller call police, according to accounts from Smith’s January 1996 court conviction. After telling the judge he wanted to go to prison to combat what his attorney said was long-term alcohol abuse, Smith got his wish and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. This time, a handcuffed Smith spoke with detectives in the parking lot of the Sis-Q Motel, at 722 S. Riverside Ave., before he was taken into custody and whisked away. "Mr. Smith still had the same clothes on that he wore in the robbery," Medford police Lt. Tim George said. "We won’t be releasing anything about his statements, but he has been very cooperative with police." Police found the majority of the stolen money in the motel room, where investigators also found some beer Smith had bought, George said. Smith’s apparent post-robbery dash is longer than his last one. Smith earned a six-year prison term in 1998 in Marion County, where he used his finger in a pocket to simulate a gun while robbing a Salem restaurant, according to accounts in the Salem Statesman Journal. In that case, he was captured moments later in a nearby Jack in the Box restaurant, where police recovered all the stolen cash except 69 cents he used to buy a cup of coffee, the newspaper reported. He was released from prison in 2004, prison records indicate. Most recently, Smith was a residential client of the Gospel Mission in Medford, until he disappeared May 16, mission Director Bill Gourley said. Gourley said he identified Smith for police from the surveillance camera Tuesday afternoon, a move George said helped investigators take a puzzling whodunit to a wrapped-up case in slightly more than four hours of intense investigation. At the mission, transients knew Smith as a quiet, keep-to-yourself guy, transient Dale Roberts said. After police inquiries Tuesday, the mission was abuzz about Smith’s past and his 1996 robbery conviction. "He didn’t strike me as a guy who would try to rob a bank," Roberts said. "I think this time maybe he wanted to go back." Police eventually learned Smith was denied a room at a Barnett Road motel, and that he had taken a cab to the Sis-Q Motel, George said. A detective used a ruse to lure Smith out of Room 108, where he was met by six officers, George said. Detectives later lodged Smith in the Jackson County Jail, where he was being held Tuesday.When confronted during the 1995 hold-up in Medford, Smith told police he wanted to go to the federal penitentiary in Sheridan. This time, he could get that wish. George said police were in touch with the FBI about whether authorities would pursue federal charges in this second bank robbery. George would not reveal whether Smith has made a similar request this time. "Obviously, he made some effort not to be discovered," George said. "He wasn’t standing on a street corner waiting to be caught. "Then again, he did stick around a bit." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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