With $1,800 from the bank robbery in his possession, man arrested in Bellingham

Police arrested a suspect early Friday, Jan. 27, in the recent robbery of a downtown Bellingham bank.

Ernesto Sosa, 30, was arrested shortly after midnight when police learned he was at a mini-mart near East Kellogg and Meridian streets, said police Lt. Claudia Murphy.

He was being held without bail Friday afternoon, according to online jail records.

Sosa was arrested on suspicion of first-degree robbery and second-degree theft in connection with the Jan. 16 robbery of the Industrial Credit Union, where between $750 and $5,000 was stolen, Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email.

"Sosa was not found immediately after the bank robbery but was identified from surveillance cameras," she said.

When he was arrested, Sosa had $1,800 from the robbery in his possession, and another $130 was found when officers got a search warrant for a tent where he was living, Murphy said.

In the Jan. 16 incident, a man that police suspect was Sosa walked into the bank and went straight to a teller, Murphy said.

"Sosa had a plaid flannel item wrapped around his arms as if he was covering something like a weapon up and told the teller he wanted everything in the till. The teller, realizing it was a robbery, complied," she said.

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