Robbery Suspect Nabbed After Hide & Seek Fails

NEWPORT, RI—The hunt for a suspect in the Nov. 26 robbery at a Broadway doughnut shop ended at Festival Field apartments on Feb. 7. Police went there a little after 10 a.m. on a tip his children's mother might be living there.

She opened the door, and let police search her apartment, according to the arrest report. Roberto Sanchez, 32, of Newport, wasn't there, but an officer went out the back door and found Sanchez on the second floor at the back of a common hallway.

He was wanted for stealing $295 from the cash register at the Dunkin Donuts, 137 Broadway, at 10:25 p.m. last November 26. Police said he allegedly walked behind a service counter, punched a male clerk and told him to empty the drawer. He grabbed the money, warned the clerk to count to 100, then fled running east on Everett Street towards Kay.

Police obtained an arrest warrant for him based on store surveillance footage and on "latent prints" from the scene. They also used cellular telephone records.

Sanchez was charged with second degree robbery, a felony, and with larceny under $1,500, a misdemeanor.