UPDATE: Bank Robber Faces Sentencing

A Detroit man was recently convicted of robbing a West Bloomfield bank last month to feed a heroin addiction, officials said.

Nathaniel Forch II, 31, pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to one count of bank robbery in Oakland County Circuit for the Feb. 14 heist at the , 4747 Haggerty Rd., records show. He faces sentencing March 31.

West Bloomfield Township Police Lt. Tim Diamond said last month that Forch entered the bank branch and passed a note to a teller demanding cash. He was not armed. The employee handed over $1,300, and Forch left immediately.

Officers arrested him shortly after he fled the scene in a getaway car that was parked behind a snowbank. A witness told police he saw a man running through a nearby parking lot when a red dye pack exploded. The man got into a vehicle and sped off.

Eyewitness key to capture

The eyewitness, a tow truck driver who asked to remain anonymous, followed the suspect’s vehicle until police intercepted it nearby.

“We may not even have caught these people if it weren’t for him,” said Diamond, who was the arresting officer in the incident. “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.”

Forch's attorney, Loren Dickstein, said he faces one to four years in prison at sentencing March 31, per an agreement with Circuit Judge Nanci Grant. Prosecutors dropped a single count of drug possession, charged in January, as part of the plea agreement.

Court records indicate Forch formally waived his right to a preliminary hearing in 48th District Court last month and entered the guilty plea during his initial pretrial hearing.

“He deeply regrets what he did, and he takes full responsibility,” Dickstein said. “Mr. Forch is a smart, congenial and conversational person, and the offense is completely out of nature for him. He just got desperate.”

Correction: Forch was released from prison this year after serving roughly six months of a maximum two year sentence for larceny in a building and larceny by conversion, prison records show. He remains in custody on $500,000 bond.