Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993 TAG: 9311130181
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He was headed home at 2:45 p.m. Friday on U.S. 460 in Christiansburg when he spotted a man flagging him down.
Fijalkowski had just spent several hours at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg where a Martinsville man - armed with a hunting knife - locked himself in a bathroom demanding medical treatment.
That man surrendered.
Little did Fijalkowski know . . .
"This guy [on U.S. 460, near the Huckleberry Inn] was walking, and when he saw me he waved me down. He came over to my car and said: `My name's David Hamilton, and I robbed a bank in Roanoke.' The moment he told me his name I knew it had to be him from the reports we received."
According to Roanoke police Lt. W.J. Beason, a man walked into the First Union Bank branch on Peters Creek Road just after 9:30 a.m. Friday and informed tellers he had a bomb in a metal container.
The robber received an unspecified amount of cash, left the container inside the bank and fled on foot, police said.
FBI agents and members of the state police bomb disposal unit were called to the scene and the container was searched and found empty.
Fijalkowski said Hamilton - who was later taken back to Roanoke and charged with the robbery by Roanoke detectives in cooperation with the FBI - expanded on his reasons for turning himself in.
"He said he'd had a bad life and wanted to turn it around," Fijalkowski said.
"He blamed [the robbery] on drugs. He really seemed like he meant what he said."
Hamilton, 43, of Gilmer Avenue Northeast in Roanoke, told Fijalkowski that he walked from the robbery scene to Christiansburg and had spent only $3 of the money, for a pack of cigarettes and a drink.
"I've never had anything like that happen to me, and it will probably never happen again," Fijalkowski said.
by CNB