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Media Articles - 1990s

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8 January 2003
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Remorseful robber surrenders;
Twelve hours after a bank heist, he turns himself and the cash over to police

Orange County Register
August 8, 1998


The bank robber made a clean getaway, escaping with several thousand dollars in loot.

But 12 hours later, he strolled into the Newport Beach police station, toting a brown paper bag containing most of the money, plus receipts for the $ 129 he spent on clothing.

"He felt bad about it," Sgt. Mike McDermott said Friday. "He had an attack of remorse and turned himself in. "

Police identified the penitent bandit as Adam Patrick Jarvis, 24, who lived at a Balboa Peninsula rehabilitation center and listed his occupation as Narconon adviser.

The holdup occurred about 3 p.m. Thursday when a very tan man wearing a goatee, brown knee-length shorts and rubber sandals passed a note to a teller at a Via Lido Bank of America saying he had a gun and demanding cash.

The teller handed over a wad of bills, and the bandit escaped on foot.

The FBI was called. Police issued a plea for public help.

But Jarvis solved the case himself, police said. He reported to police headquarters near Fashion Island and confessed.

McDermott said police inquiries so far failed to turn up any record of previous robberies, although investigators are awaiting results of a check being made on his fingerprints.

Police were holding Jarvis on $50,000 in bail until the FBI picked him up Friday afternoon, with plans to prosecute him in federal court. McDermott said his confession probably will mitigate his sentence, but chances are good he will end up doing some time in a federal penitentiary.

"We don't get many like this," McDermott said. "But we'll take them any way we can get 'em. "