Armored truck robbed after driver mistakes robber for partner
Indio CA July 27 2020
A suspect in an Indio armored car robbery got access to the vehicle after its driver mistook him for a colleague, court documents say.
The documents also detail how the suspect, Desert Hot Springs resident Angel Aleman, 35, escaped from authorities one day later while he was in custody at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
The convoluted series of events, which spanned about 30 hours, began about 1:40 p.m. Friday, police say, when Aleman approached a Brinks vehicle parked outside a McDonald’s at 81-544 Highway 111.
He knocked on the rear door and “the driver thought it was his partner attempting to gain access and popped the door open,” officials wrote in a declaration for increased bail.
The suspect entered the vehicle and took a bank deposit bag containing $140,000, Indio police reported. Earlier this week, police spokesman Ben Guitron described the incident as a “crime of opportunity.”
The Desert Sun reached out to Brinks officials for comment.
Police found Aleman in the 47-700 block of Palomino Court where he was doing yard work at a home that had no connection to him. Aleman tried to escape while being taken into custody, according to the declaration.
Investigators found the bank deposit bag under a box in a shallow hole in a dirt lot north of Palomino near Cheyenne Street.
Aleman was booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio and authorities say he escaped just after 3 p.m. Saturday.
Riverside County sheriff’s investigators have not said how Aleman escaped, but a declaration for increased bail says he fled while in the process of being transferred to another facility. He was being escorted onto a bus when he ran through the vehicle gate.
Desert Hot Springs resident Angel Felipe Aleman is suspected of robbing an armored car in Indio Friday, July 17, 2020 and escaping custody one day later.
A manhunt ensued and authorities found the suspect around 7:50 p.m. hiding in a vehicle in a residential area.
By that point, Aleman had taken off his orange jail jumpsuit but still wore his waist chains, according to the sheriff’s department. Aleman was treated for a minor injury.
He was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to charges of grand theft and escaping authorities and he’s in custody in lieu of $460,000 bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.
Aleman also argued for a new defense attorney and a hearing on the matter took place. These types of hearings are confidential, Riverside County District Attorney’s office spokesman John Hall said.
A Riverside County Superior Court spokeswoman confirmed this week that Aleman had been in custody on unrelated charges until April. His bail was reduced to $0 as part of a statewide effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus by reducing jail populations.
Court records show Aleman has a history of arrests and he was most recently in custody for at least two unrelated 2019 cases: Battery on a relative in April and a car theft in July. Bail for each case was originally set at $5,000 and $175,000, respectively.
