Tow Truck Driver Playing Poker on His Phone Helps Police Nab Bank Robber

A tow truck driver, playing games on his cell phone while sitting in a store parking lot, helped nab a bank robber last week as the suspect sped away from the scene.

“We may not even have caught these people if it weren’t for him,” said police Lt. Tim Diamond, who was the arresting officer in the incident, which occurred Feb. 14. “The bank wasn’t able to catch the getaway vehicle on their security camera, and he called us before the bank did. It ended up being no pursuit, no injuries, no problems.”

Nathaniel Forch, 31, of Detroit, was arrested and charged with one count of bank robbery, and is being held in Oakland County Jail on $500,000 bond. The female who drove the car was released without being charged, which, according to Diamond, may have been due to a lack of evidence against her.

'I put two and two together ...'

The tow truck driver, who asked to remain anonymous, said that police later told him they believed that the driver of the getaway car carefully chose to wait behind a pile of snow in the parking lot adjacent to , 4747 Haggerty Rd., while the robber, who police say was unarmed, passed a note inside.

“I was just sitting in the lot next door at (4805 Haggerty Rd.) playing on my phone for a while," he said. "I stretched my neck and when I did, I saw a man running away from the bank towards a car, and that’s when the dye pack exploded and this red dye flew everywhere around him. So, I put two and two together, called 911, and started following the car.”

Diamond said $1,300 cash was taken from the bank; that was the amount police said was found inside the vehicle when Forch was arrested.

Diamond said the tow truck driver did the right thing in calling the police as soon as his suspicions arose, and was smart to stay a safe distance behind the other vehicle in order to relay the license plate information and direction headed.

“They weren’t paying attention to me,” said the tow truck driver. “They were going pretty fast in the left-hand lane, and I was just trying to keep them in sight. I was talking to the police, and I have to admit I was nervous.”

Diamond explained that the  driver drove south on Haggerty, where police were waiting at the intersection of Maple Road – just two miles away from the bank, thanks to the tow truck driver's phone call. The driver saw the police vehicles and made an abrupt turn into a gas station. Diamond pulled over the vehicle as the tow truck driver lagged behind.

'Hero of the day'

“I didn’t want him to see me,” said the tow truck driver of the robber. “The police actually called us to tow his car, so I towed it."

The tow truck said that later that day, he also received accolades from Police Chief Michael Patton and the rest of the police department.

“The chief shook my hand and everyone else said they wouldn’t have caught the guy if it weren’t for me," he said.

They called me the hero of the day … I was just playing poker on my phone."