Police: Public self-gratification is bank robber’s undoing

A man’s bout of public self-gratification was his undoing when a passerby complained about him to officers, who identified him as the man who robbed a Capitol Hill Bank the night before, according to the Seattle Police Department.

At 5:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, the man walked into the US Bank near Broadway and East John Street and handed the teller a note that said he had a bomb and wanted cash, according to police.

The man got away with the cash before officers arrived, but they were able to get his picture from the bank’s surveillance cameras.

The next day a woman flagged down officers to report a man "having a good time with himself" in the entryway of a car dealership near 11th and Pike.

Officers found the man, who said he wasn’t "playing with himself," just trying to hide money in his pants, according to police.

Officers arrested the man after recognizing him from the bank’s surveillance images and found money stuffed in his pockets and the soles of his shoes.

The man was booked into King County Jail for investigation of robbery.