Channel 5 Reporters Go to Do a Story on ATM Robbery, Wind Up Witnessing One Instead

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Dec. 14 2010 at 7:50 AM

Yesterday, the Richardson Police Department issued a press release detailing a Sunday-evening stick-em-up near Centennial Boulevard and Audelia Road: Around 6:15 p.m. Sunday, a woman pulled in to use the ATM, at which point she was greeted by a man with a gun who lifted her cash and card, which he later used elsewhere. RPD described the gunman thusly: white, early 20s, 150 pounds, clean-shaven, dressed in dark clothes head to toe.

Last night, Channel 5's Omar Villafranca and Larry Herrera headed out to the site to shoot a story about the robbery. At which point, they espied a white dude, early 20s, 150 pounds, clean-shaven, dressed in dark clothes head to toe lurking behind bushes near the very ATM at which the woman had been held up 24 hours earlier. Villafranca picks up the tale:

I called a Richardson police officer who is a source of mine and asked if the department could run a marked car by us. My source said he'd do it. The second I hung up, I saw the man flip his hoodie over his head and run in a crouched position toward the back of the car.

That's when I called 911. We're trained to always identify ourselves, so I told the dispatcher I was a reporter and that I was witnessing a robbery. Officers showed up a few minutes later. I flagged down the stunned SUV driver and told them I saw everything.

The PD later caught the man at a Big Lots. Man, if only they still gave out Katie Awards.

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