Tigard bank scam suspects surrender to police

Police say two men conned local businesses into giving up money meant for night deposit box

The Portland Tribune, Sep 4, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

COURTESY OF Tigard Police department

Sterling Hooten (inset left) and Randall Theil (inset right) have been charged with robbery in the Aug. 15 Tigard bank scam involving fake security guard uniforms, handcuffs and a sign that were used at the Washington Square Wells Fargo bank night deposit box.

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Both suspects in Tigard's mid-August fake bank security guard case have surrendered to police.

Sterling Walmer Hooten, 20, of Vancouver, Wash., turned himself in to Tigard police Friday, Sept. 5. He is in the Washington County Jail facing a first-degree theft charge.

Tigard police say another man linked to the case is in custody in Alameda County, Calif.

Randall Theil, 19, and Hooten face unrelated burglary charges for break-ins on the University of California at Berkeley campus. Theil and Hooten are not UC Berkeley students.

Theil, also a Vancouver, Wash., resident, surrendered Monday afternoon, Sept. 8, to a Tigard police officer outside the Washington County Jail in Hillsboro.

Tigard police said they believe the two men used realistic uniforms and a blue "Out of Order" sign to fool a couple of business people into giving up their night deposits. The businesses lost hundreds of dollars in the case.

Theil and Hooten were arrested more than a week ago by UC Berkeley campus police in connection with a string of dormitory burglaries. During the investigation, campus police detectives discovered several odd items, such as fake security guard uniforms, security badges, ID cards, a pair of handcuffs and a blue sign instructing people that the night deposit box was broken and to give their deposits to the guards.

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