Fugitive robber's undoing: $40 heist
For seven years, Johnson had eluded California police and the FBI, who were hunting him in connection with the violent robbery of an exclusive Bay Area jewelry store in 1997.
Johnson reportedly grabbed the espresso-stand tip jar about 11 a.m. Monday, and then ran. After a 40-minute chase started by witnesses and finished by police, he found himself surrounded by more than a dozen Seattle cops. Police say he admitted his identity and acknowledged his fugitive status.
In Alameda, Calif., the scene of the jewelry-store robbery, police were delighted by the news.
"He's very elusive and able to blend in," Alameda Police Sgt. Joe Dwyer said yesterday. "Why he did a simple 'till tap' I have no idea."
The jewelry-store heist was featured seven times on the crime-tip show "America's Most Wanted."
Six others who were arrested in the heist were convicted and locked up. Johnson's car was found at San Francisco International Airport, but there was no trace of him, and there were reports that he had left the country.
Police now believe Johnson had been hiding out in the Seattle area the entire time.
"It happened so fast"
On Monday, an unshaven man walked up to the window of Danica Copus' drive-through espresso stand, offered a sly smile, grabbed her tip jar and ran.
Copus screamed for help.
"It was more of a shock than anything," Copus, 30, of Seattle, said yesterday. "It happened so fast."
Several employees of Lucca Statuary, the Fremont business that runs the espresso stand, gave chase. Police arrived and pursued the robber through nearby alleys and an apartment complex. Witnesses helped by pointing him out as he ran, according to the police report.
Johnson gave himself up in the 100 block of Northwest 39th Street. Officers found $1,925.03 in his pocket. Johnson was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of property damage and theft.
Alameda authorities have begun the process to extradite him for investigation of flight, escape, robbery, assault and unlawful imprisonment, Dwyer said.
A dramatic crime
Wanda Cook still struggles to talk about the April 1997 robbery of the jewelry store she and her husband owned. When police told them of the arrest, Wanda Cook said she was "deliriously overjoyed."
"It's been seven years, and I knew eventually it was going to happen," she said. "I'm just thrilled, and this can come to a closure."
Charles Cook, 65, had met Johnson at one of two Alameda pool halls Cook owned.
"He was a nice person," Charles Cook said yesterday. "We would travel on the road together."
Cook, who said the robbery nearly killed him, now believes that Johnson had sidled up to him to case his jewelry store.
Jim Taranto, a former Alameda police sergeant who investigated the crime, said the robbery plan masterminded by Johnson was like something out of a movie. It involved a stolen rental truck fitted with a winch and a ramp and equipped with construction dollies to help cart off the jewelry-store's safe.
The robbers also had police scanners, walkie-talkies and getaway cars.
"Nobody denied Rick was the ringleader of this event," Taranto said. "It's our belief he recruited them all to plan and case this fairly high-end diamond and jewelry dealer. They planned it for a year before it occurred."
After making sure that the Cooks were alone in the store, two of Johnson's cohorts went in, acting like customers.
They quickly jumped the counter, severely beat the couple, then tied them up and blindfolded them with duct tape, said Taranto.
Johnson then entered the store, but the robbery plan was soon derailed when the men realized they couldn't get the enormous safe out the door. The botched heist was called off when the robbers' lookout, who was listening to a police scanner, said the cops were on their way, said Taranto.
Angry but thankful
Back in Fremont, barista Copus says she's angry because "this kind of stuff happens at espresso stands all the time." She was most upset that Johnson took her antique coffee can, which had been a gift from a co-worker.
But after hearing about the violent California jewelry-store robbery, Copus is happy she wasn't hurt in the theft of her tip jar.
"I'm thankful he didn't do anything else."
Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com