A Wasilla man in a black hooded jacket with a black towel covering his face walked into the Taco Bell on East Tudor Road on Tuesday, said he had a gun and asked for money, Anchorage police say.
Then Gerald Spies, 34, ditched his outerwear several blocks away and left a trail to Piper Street and Providence Drive, where officers spotted him — “not dressed for the snowy weather” — and arrested him on multiple charges, including first-degree robbery, police said in an alert Tuesday afternoon.
The University of Alaska Anchorage Police Department provided assistance.
Police say they got a report of an armed robbery at 10:22 a.m. As patrol officers investigated the robbery at 2640 E. Tudor Road, emergency dispatchers received a report of a suspicious person at Wright Street and Kimberly Court taking off his outerwear and burying it in the snow.
The man was gone when officers arrived, but the clothes matched the ones the armed robbery suspect was wearing. They found him about 15 minutes later.
Spies was arrested without incident, APD spokesman MJ Thim said.
He never displayed a gun during the robbery but implied he had one when he demanded money, Thim said. Thim said he didn’t know if police recovered any weapons with the possessions Spies discarded.
