
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993                   TAG: 9306120160
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

METER ATTENDANT LAYS DOWN LAW

The pen proved mightier than the sword - or at least the police handgun - for an Arlington parking meter attendant.

Carlos Flores, a parking enforcement officer armed only with pen and pad and quick wits, spotted the suspect after a teller from the First American Bank came outside Thursday afternoon and told him the bank had just been robbed.

Flores called for police, then followed the suspect and watched him change into new clothes, police spokesman Tom Bell said.

The suspect spotted him and started to flee, but Flores ordered him to lie down on the ground.

And he did.

Police arrived and took Patrick Peladaeu, 25, of St. Hubert, Quebec, into custody, Bell said.

Bell said Peladaeu was wanted in the slaying of his mother in Canada on Monday, a bank robbery in Boston on Tuesday and a bank robbery in the District of Columbia on Wednesday.

He is being held in the Arlington jail.

by CNB