‘Yep, it’s yogurt. Strawberry’

Published 9:00 pm Monday, November 20, 2006

EVERETT – It turns out that the robber wasn’t packing heat when he held up a check-cashing business.

He packed a nutritious snack instead.

Police on Monday blew up a four-pack of Dannon strawberry yogurt wrapped in a brown paper bag. During the heist, the man said the package was a bomb.

Police bomb technicians did not know whether the yogurt was non-fat.

“It was too smooshed by the time we were done,” Everett police Lt. Chris Andersen said.

Police arrested the Everett man, 64, shortly after he was seen running from Dollarwise, a check-cashing and loan business at 4027 Rucker Ave.

Employees told police the man came into the store just before 2 p.m. and demanded money.

“He was really calm. He didn’t seem nervous. He said ‘I’ve got a bomb and I’m not afraid to let it go off. Give me all the money out of the till,’” said Shauna Baker, who was working at the business at the time of the hold up.

Two women handed over their cash and Baker pushed a panic alarm, summoning police. One employee chased after the man, who ran toward the Everett Clinic, Baker said.

A police officer, who was in the area, also ran after the man.

The officer saw the man ditch the small package in some bushes on the south end of the Gundersen Building.

He kept up the chase and found the man crouched in some shrubbery on the north side of Physicians Eye Clinic.

The man was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car without a struggle, Andersen said.

Because of the threats he made during the robbery, police evacuated portions of the clinics. They called bomb technicians to handle the discarded package, Andersen said.

As the technicians were setting up their equipment, a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy brought a witness to view the alleged robber.

A bank in Mill Creek had been robbed earlier in the day by a man who claimed to have a hand grenade, sheriff’s spokesman Rich Niebusch said.

The witness didn’t recognize the man, but sheriff’s deputies will continue to work with Everett police to determine if it is the same suspect, Niebusch said.

About an hour after the Everett robbery, bomb technicians blew up the package.

“Yep, it’s yogurt,” Andersen said. “Strawberry.”

If convicted, the man could be facing more time behind bars because he implied he had a weapon – even though the weapon was a snack.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.