A 33-year-old man was behind bars Tuesday on suspicion of robbing a Carlsbad bank and, hours later, leading the California Highway Patrol on a brief Fallbrook-area road chase that ended when he crashed the SUV he was driving.
Timothy Allen Bliss allegedly handed a demand note to a teller at a US Bank branch in the 7700 block of El Camino Real about 11 a.m. Monday and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash in a white Ford Explorer.
About four hours later, a CHP officer spotted the same make and model of vehicle drifting in and out of lanes and veering onto the wrong side of the road on state Route 76, near Gird Road, said Officer Robert Catano, a Highway Patrol spokesman.
When the officer tried to pull him over on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, the motorist, later identified as Bliss, allegedly refused to yield and continued on to the west and south, speeding, swerving and running several stoplights before losing control of the SUV at Olive Hill Road.
The vehicle skidded off the roadway and overturned, leaving Bliss trapped inside. Emergency crews freed him, and medics took him to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido for an evaluation and blood toxicology test.
A witness to the Carlsbad robbery called police after seeing footage of the damaged Explorer on a news broadcast and told them he believed it was the same vehicle he had seen speeding away from the bank.
Records showed the SUV was owned by a man with a distinctive neck tattoo similar to one included in descriptions of the bandit.
After being released from the hospital, Bliss was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of robbery, burglary, DUI, evading police and driving on a suspended license. He was being held on $200,000 bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
— City News Service
