Cop Stories

By Lance Anderson

While working as a Violent Crimes detective for twenty-seven years, my investigations were the result of rapes, robberies, or suspicious deaths. I'm also an instrument-rated pilot and flew prisoner transports, narcotics surveillance, or traveled throughout the western half of the United States on Boise's most violent cases. Following retirement from Boise Police, I moved to Alaska and became an investigator for the attorney general's office. Numerous times, friends and family told me I should write a book. The cases I have chosen for this book are most unusual and will capture your attention. Truth certainly is stranger than fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885053853

Book preview

Introduction

The following stories are all based on facts from various investigations I was involved in either while working as a Violent Crimes investigator for Boise Police Department for twenty-seven of my thirty-two years of service or the Alaska Attorneys General Office, eight years. My duties often included piloting an airplane, so I’ve got a few nail-biting stories involving a flight to share as well. Some of the names of the parties involved have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent. I should add that I loved working for the Boise Police Department. The City of Boise was a well-funded municipality that spared no expense on training, equipment, or progressive and professional changes to improve the police force. They held us to a high standard, required continuous training, and would polygraph, suspend, or fire anyone that crossed an ethical line. I never asked for additional training, equipment, or overtime that was denied. Having said that, I worked the most high-profile cases and our unit’s success was higher than other departments.

1. Bank robbery at Fourth and Washington

We had an informant that said he had been approached by an acquaintance who wanted to rob the bank at Fourth and Washington and wanted the informant to be the wheel man. We made the mistake of letting our new lieutenant know, and he wouldn’t let us allow the robbery to take place then catch the bad guy after he came out. He saw liability issues if someone got hurt and so told the branch manager. The branch manager said he was closing the bank to protect his employees. The lieutenant talked him into staffing the bank with undercover cops to salvage the opportunity to catch the bad guy.

My unit was assigned various locations outside the bank perimeter in order to spot the suspect vehicle coming into the area of the bank then alert the other officers of the likely robbery soon to follow. We had five or six undercover cars, another five or six officers inside the bank pretending to be tellers and management as well as SWAT snipers on top of buildings and others scattered around, waiting in the event a shootout or who knows what might occur. It turned into quite a circus.

I was part of the surveillance team. Five of the detectives in my unit had just been assigned our own undercover police cars as compared to using pool cars. The downside was the cars they purchased for us were old rejects from who knows where. Mine had 107,000 miles on it. At least we had good radios. We had scramblers that encrypted our communications unless you had the exact same equipment and knew which frequency code we were switching to.

Back to the bank… Our surveillance unit spotted the pickup truck owned by the getaway driver coming into the area of the bank. We didn’t have communication with the snitch since he refused to wear a wire. They drove through the bank parking lot a couple of times then stopped in a parking spot where they could observe the interior. Our surveillance unit was strictly instructed that our only mission was mobile surveillance and to take no aggressive action since SWAT would be more appropriate for that. Riiiiight… There were way too many supervisors and legal beagles involved for this to come off as planned.

All of a sudden, the suspect vehicle left the parking lot and headed west on State Street which becomes a highway and accesses smaller bedroom towns west of Boise. Our unit continued the surveillance, not knowing if they had given up entirely or what they were thinking. The vehicle continued out of town on State Street and pulled onto a side street then stopped. About half a block west of their location was a bank, but we didn’t know if it was a potential target or just a coincidence. It was approximately ten miles from the original location. I set up across from the bank in a fire station. The other detectives were scattered around, with one maintaining eye contact with the vehicle from a distance.

Several minutes passed when I noticed the bad guy going through a neighborhood yard and walking to the bank. I notified the other units, and the anticipation of a potential bank robbery was on everyone’s mind. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes, the suspect came running out of the bank holding a bag and heading for their vehicle. I told the other units, All units be aware, the suspect just exited the bank running east toward the vehicle. Stand by for mobile. We weren’t even in our jurisdiction since we were far out of Boise and now in Ada County.

Detective Banta said he had the eye and the robbery suspect entered the truck and it was headed north. Units started jockeying for position so if the lead car had been behind the suspect too long, he turned away from the suspect and the second car took the eye and so on. The truck continued a zigzag route and ended up on a secondary highway headed back toward Boise. By now, the robbery suspect had noticed the string of cars behind the truck and a pursuit began.

The next series of events are straight out of a Keystone Cops story. The lead police car began smoking with an obvious mechanical issue and slowing down. We were hitting speeds around eighty-plus in a 55-mph zone. I took the lead and had Detective Clough riding with me so he could handle the radio and I could focus on driving. About that time, the passenger in the truck, who was the suspect robber, pointed a gun at the head of the driver. Obviously, the robber was likely aware he had been sold out. I told the other units what I observed. One of the units tried transmitting something, but I couldn’t understand him because there was a loud slapping noise whenever he tried to transmit. He finally said the vinyl roof on his vehicle had come loose and was banging on the roof top to the point he couldn’t hear or be heard.

The chaotic chase continued, and the robbery suspect now opened the split rear window on the truck and pointed the gun at me. I obviously backed off a bit and looked to see if Detective Clough was updating the threat. I immediately realized he wasn’t since he couldn’t observe what was going on from his position on the floorboard of the passenger area. I grabbed the mic and told the other units we were now turning left on a side street headed east, continuing toward Boise, and I was switching to an open patrol channel to see about a potential roadblock. There wasn’t any point in scrambling our communication anymore.

I checked my rearview mirror but couldn’t see much through the smoke of our quickly malfunctioning cars. I noticed my brakes were failing and had to keep a respectful distance between me and the suspect due to the gun threat and the fact I couldn’t count on my brakes that now were smoking and the burned brake pad smell was filling the car.

I was contacted on the radio by a patrol sergeant that said he had commandeered a trash truck and had blocked the road a short distance ahead. The passenger in the truck continued to hold a gun to the head of the driver until they were forced to stop at the roadblock.

When we got back to the detective’s office, the driver and robber were in custody in separate interview rooms. The informant said everything was fine until they got to the intended bank, but the robber noticed there were no employees in the bank that he recognized so he got spooked and wanted to hit another bank.

All’s well that ends well. The bad guy went to prison for bank robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a crime, and best of all…we got new cars.

2. The bicycle bandit

Boise had become a hotspot for bank robberies. It was located on I-84 and most anyone traveling between Salt Lake, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, or Reno east and west often had to go through Boise. I love working bank robberies for several reasons. To begin with, the witnesses are all sober. Too many times during late-night robberies of convenience stores, for example, the witnesses are under the influence and their ability to recall the exact events are limited.

Banks usually have an abundance of security such as cameras and dye packs that are disguised as money that blow red dye all over the robber once they pass through an electronic field on the way out the door. Numerous bills are marked or recorded, and often, there is a tracking device included in the bills given to the robbers. Most of the robberies are during the day so there are numerous investigators from various agencies that are able to respond. Since the money in a bank is federally insured, the FBI also responds. In the case of Boise’s relationship with the FBI, Boise takes the lead role. In many smaller jurisdictions, they have less ability to provide the necessary manpower, budget, or trained personnel so they opt for the FBI to take the lead. I worked well with some of the FBI agents, but not all. The FBI routinely works financial crimes, so their hiring priorities lean toward people that might have an accounting background as compared to a police background. The best agents I worked with became agents after they worked for years in some police department or sheriff’s office. To put it bluntly, a cop with several years in a department understands the criminal mindset and can relate to the suspects he or she encounters. An agent with an accounting background doesn’t have the same sense of understanding and doesn’t relate to the suspects in an interview setting.

Boise had been hit three times by a bank robber in a few months who had a unique MO or method of operation. This robber had approached several tellers and demanded money but then made his escape on a bicycle. His apparent intent was to have a route planned following the robbery that made it difficult for a patrol car to follow. He wore enough of a disguise that no one had been able to ID him from mug shots or camera presentations made to the public.

On his fourth robbery, fate turned against him, even though he became even more clever as he prepared for the robbery. The target bank was located at Vista Avenue and Cassia Street, which is a heavily populated area with businesses on Vista and residential housing behind the business area. It was winter, and there were approximately six inches of fresh snow on the ground (not ideal biking weather). Our robber developed an ingenious plan by placing a typed sign on the outside of the bank door he used for entry that stated, The bank is temporarily closed for robbery training. Please be patient and we will resume business shortly. He then proceeded to collect money from four tellers at gunpoint and exited out the rear door to his awaiting getaway bicycle. Much to his dismay as he peddled quickly through the snow, he hit a patch of ice and was dumped in a heap. In his panic to recover, he was observed scrambling to collect at least the bag of money and escape the imagined posse. He got back on his bike and left the area.

Another reason I liked working bank robberies was the numerous clean windows allowing witnesses to view the departure of the bad guys. They were able to articulate the crash of said robber, who mysteriously was scrambling about on his hands and knees in the snow searching for something before getting back on the bike and riding off. As they expressed this to the responding patrol officers, the mystery was resolved, and a pair of prescription glasses was recovered as evidence. Also collected was the typed note left on the door as well as a wig matching the description of the robber’s hair. It was located in a dumpster along the robber’s escape route. Of specific note were a few hairs that appeared to be brown.

The bank film was retrieved and processed so a list of clothing and disguise was developed for future reference. It never ceased to amaze me how ten sober witnesses to the same event in a well-lit room could be so different in their description of the robber. The age would vary by twenty years. The height and weight would be from 5' to 6' and 150 to 220 pounds. The clothing described is any multitude of items you might find on the rack of any thrift store. In my instruction at the police academy to budding officers, I would tell them to be aware of this and stop handing out the fill in the blank forms at bank robberies or any crime scene for that matter. Witnesses want to help, but too often must feel compelled to put something in the blank when directed to describe every aspect of the robber. Instead, I asked witnesses to only describe what they are sure of in their description. I pay no attention to the witness who was sitting at a desk fifty feet away from the robber when trying to describe the guy’s height. On the other hand, I give great credit to the witness who describes the robber’s jacket because her husband has one exactly like it. As soon as I arrive at a bank robbery scene, I ask all the witnesses to go to the exact spot in the bank where they were sitting or standing at the time of the robbery. This helps evaluate the information from each witness.

After the interviews and collection of evidence, I’m back at the detective division, putting out information to the news agencies and police agencies in hopes of developing leads. A close-up photo of the glasses in question depicted a chipped paint mark on the frame above the nose. I began going through the hundreds of photographs of parolees, assuming these robberies were committed by someone we’ve dealt with in the past. After a monotonous couple of days, I got lucky, and bingo, there they were. The exact same glasses on the face of one Dexter Holman. He was under supervision with Probation and Parole for property crimes. I contacted his PO—Parole Officer—but learned that Mr. Holman had absconded and was in the wind. A warrant for parole violation was entered into NCIC, the national database for searching the names of wanted people or property.

I began talking to his relatives and known associates, but no one seemed to have a current location for Mr. Holman. A couple of days later, I got a phone call from a distant relative who informed me he was aware Dexter had used an alias in the past that was similar, Rolfe VonHoffman. A check of our utility companies revealed another stroke of luck. Rolfe VonHoffman was paying for electricity at a cabin in the remote area outside McCall, Idaho, about 120 miles north of Boise.

Detective Stan Wood and I drove to that location, and from a distance, noted the description of the cabin and a vehicle parked outside that, alas, was registered to the soon-to-become-famous suspect. We traveled back toward Boise to Cascade, Idaho, which is the county seat of Valley County and the home of the judge who gave us a search warrant for the cabin. We returned to the cabin and placed Dexter Holman, alias Rolfe VonHoffman, in custody for the only charge we had at the time, which was a parole violation. I noted Dexter’s hair had been dyed blonde. He had nothing to say that didn’t include attorney.

While conducting the search of Dexter’s cabin, I couldn’t help but notice a vast number of books on shelves that went floor to ceiling in several rooms. This guy was certainly no dummy except in his means to supplement his income.

As days turned to weeks, I received the results of various evidence. The computer we recovered from Dexter’s cabin matched the type on the note from the bank. The hair we recovered from the wig in the dumpster matched Dexter’s hair even though he had dyed it. We could show the growth from the time of the robbery to the time we collected his known hair was consistent with the length of the renewed brown hair, showing half an inch of changed color. The glasses were the best evidence since an enlarged photo of the chip was exactly the same on the mug shot as on the glasses themselves.

After obtaining an arrest warrant for robbery, Detective Wood and I traveled to the Cascade jail and collected Dexter for his trip back to Boise where he would stand trial. On the way back, I made a small