Getaway taxi gone, robbery suspect nabbed on run; $100,000 bail set for Worcester man charged in Digital theft.

Byline: Steven H. Foskett Jr.

WORCESTER - A city man was arrested and charged with robbing the Digital Federal Credit Union on Shrewsbury Street yesterday afternoon after his unwitting getaway driver realized his taxicab was being used for that purpose and drove away, police said.

The accused robber, Lewis D. James, 25, of 61 Gage St., Apt. 2, was arrested shortly after an officer heading to the credit union saw him running down Shrewsbury Street, police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst said.

The sergeant said Mr. James took a cab to the credit union. Police spoke with the cab driver, who provided additional information that helped identify Mr. James as the alleged robber. The cab driver told police Mr. James had told him to wait for him before he entered the credit union.

"The cab driver observed the male coming back from the bank carrying a duffel bag," Sgt. Hazelhurst said. "The cab driver became suspicious, locked his doors, and drove away."

Sgt. Hazelhurst said Mr. James was charged with armed and masked robbery. He was also charged with armed robbery in connection with a Jan. 13 robbery at the TD Banknorth branch at 370 Main St.

The sergeant said that about 1:45 p.m. yesterday, Officer Scott M. Pulsifer was sent to the credit union branch at 225 Shrewsbury St. to investigate an armed robbery in progress. While on his way to the credit union, Officer Pulsifer noticed a man running down Shrewsbury Street who fit the description a bank employee had given to a police dispatcher. He saw the man run onto Casco Street and then onto Albany Street. The officer pulled up to the man on Albany Street and told him to show his hands and to get on the ground.

Officer Pulsifer got out of his cruiser and approached the man at gunpoint. The suspect, later identified as Mr. James, surrendered. Bank employees later positively identified Mr. James as the alleged robber, Sgt. Hazelhurst said. Police also recovered a duffel bag full of cash and a handgun.

Officers John Monopoli, Thomas J. Salmon, and Kenneth D. Carville assisted Officer Pulsifer with the arrest.

Mr. James was being held at Police Headquarters on $100,000 cash bail; he is to be arraigned Monday in Central District Court, Sgt. Hazelhurst said.

The practice of robbing a bank or a convenience store and attempting to flee in a waiting cab is apparently not a new - or very successful - concept.

In 2007, a man was arrested in Fitchburg after

robbing a Cumberland Farms. After robbing the store, the man

approached a woman on the street and used her phone to call a taxi. The woman agreed to share a cab with the robber.

The taxi driver refused to drive the suspects after the store clerk notified him over the intercom that the store had been robbed. The man and the woman were both charged.

In 2006, a Leominster man was arrested after he was seen trying to get in a taxi after

robbing a Leominster convenience store. He fled on foot, only to be arrested later.

Also in 2006, a Fitchburg woman was arrested after she

robbed a Fitchburg convenience store and tried to flee in a taxi. The woman ran to a waiting taxi and was chased by clerks from the convenience store, who told the driver she had just robbed the business. The woman fled on foot.

In 2004, a city man was arrested after police said he was planning to carry a computer monitor from a house to a waiting taxi. He never made it into the cab.

In 2003, a Worcester man was arrested after he

robbed a Shrewsbury bank and fled in a waiting taxi.

He was later found on the 11th floor of the Lincoln Park Towers.

ART: PHOTO

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/PAUL KAPTEYN

CUTLINE: Worcester police help Lewis D. James, who is handcuffed, stand up after he was arrested yesterday in connection with a bank robbery.