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Where is the Where's Waldo Bandit? On Facebook Taunting Police

PORTLAND – The FBI’s hunt for the Where’s Waldo Bandit took a peculiar turn in the last 17 hours, as surveillance photos of the robber’s Tualatin bank heist turned up on their suspect’s Facebook page.

A Portland man, Ryan M. Homsley, is suspected of robbing the Key Bank at 7152 SW Hazelfern Road on Tuesday. The following day, federal authorities charged him with the crime.

Hours later, Homsley or someone purporting to be Homsley, took responsibility for the crimes on his Facebook page — using one of the FBI’s bank surveillance photos as his profile picture.

“im now a bank robber,” reads one of Homsley’s Facebook wall messages. Another post reads, “im doing this to pay for my medical expenses. … live for today!”

Another of the Facebook messages, first reported by The Portlander, paid homage to legendary bandit D.B. Cooper, who in 1971 hijacked a Boeing 727 in Portland, got $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted out of the plane. Cooper literally vanished into thin air, and his crime endures as one of America’s great unsolved crimes.

“db cooper was a great man,” according to a message on Homsley’s Facebook wall. “the wheres waldo bandit will be better….see ya gys in seattle next.”

The FBI had its own message for Homsley.

“We need Ryan to turn himself in,” said Beth Anne Steele, spokeswoman for the FBI in Oregon. “Any time you have somebody out there who’s robbing banks, there’s certainly concerns it could escalate. And the best and safest thing for Ryan is to turn himself in.”

The FBI dubbed their suspect the Where’s Waldo Bandit because he wore a striped shirt and big horn-rimmed glasses into the bank, much like the cartoon character Where’s Waldo.

Asked about the Facebook taunts, Steele said, “The FBI’s response is, we want to find Ryan.”

Homsley, 29, is suspected of walking into the Key Bank Tuesday, threatening that he had a bomb, and leaving a small box behind as he departed.

A bomb squad examined the box and a backpack believed to belong to Homsley and determined neither held explosives, the FBI reported.Investigators are asking anyone with information about Homsley’s whereabouts to phone them.

The FBI can be reached at 503-224-4181, Tigard police at 503-639-6168, and Tualatin police at 503-691-4800.

The Oregon Financial Institutions Security Task Force has offered up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the bank robbery.

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