Ore. Police Nab Well-Dressed, Apologetic Serial Bank Robber

A well-dressed man in a suit and tie apologized as he handed a bank teller a note demanding money — a tactic investigators say he used to try to rob three banks along Southwest Portland’s Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway in a nine-day span before his arrest this month.

Beaverton police arrested James Allyn Dorsey, 62, on state allegations and then he was charged in federal court this week with bank robbery.

He’s accused of making off with more than $7,000 from two of the three banks.

When officers searched his apartment with a warrant, they found some of the clothes he was caught wearing on bank surveillance cameras. One of the demand notes he produced was found stuffed in the pocket of one of his dark-colored suit jackets in his bedroom closet, the affidavit said.

Dorsey is accused of attempting to rob the Wells Fargo bank at 6785 S.W. Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway on Dec. 10. Two days later, he struck the U.S. Bank, at 8205 S.W. Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, and then last Friday, he hit the Chase Bank at 8275 S.W. Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, according to a federal affidavit.

About 4:15 p.m. on Dec. 10, he approached a teller at the Wells Fargo bank, handed her a note that read, “Give me all your money,” and said a second person was waiting for him outside. The teller told him she did not have a cash box at her desk and stepped away and activated a silent alarm, and he left the bank.

At 4:44 p.m. on Dec. 12, he entered the U.S. Bank, handed a teller a manila folder containing a note that told her she had 30 seconds to give him ‘all the money.’" As she turned over $2,712 in cash, he said, “I don’t want to do this,” apologized but grabbed the bills and fled out the door, last seen running south from the bank, the affidavit said.

Seven days later, about 4:35 p.m., he entered the Chase Bank, presented a note that said, “Put all the money in the envelope,” and as the teller placed cash in a manila envelope he handed her, he told her “sorry” at least twice, according to the affidavit. He made off with $4,600 in cash, according to the FBI.

Following the second robbery, Beaverton police were able to identify the suspect through surveillance images and located his apartment nearby, off of Southwest Oleson Road, the affidavit said.

After the third robbery at the Chase Bank, investigators went to the apartment and spotted Dorsey step out of a green Jaguar Coupe. He walked around to the passenger door and removed what looked like a suit jacket and a manila envelope and headed to his apartment, the FBI said.

Later that night, Beaverton police Officer Nicholas Jacobs spotted Dorsey smoking a cigarette outside his apartment complex and police arrested him, according to the affidavit.

Officers obtained a warrant and searched his apartment last Saturday and found more than 20 firearms in his bedroom and $3,500 in cash inside a padded manila envelope that appeared to be similar to one he had presented at the Chase Bank robbery, the affidavit said. In his bedroom closet, officers found clothing that resembled what the bank robbery suspect wore: gray suit jackets, gray suit pants, black and blue suit jackets, a dark overcoat, and red, yellow and blue and black neckties, according to the affidavit.

Inside one of the dark-colored suits, police found a crumpled handwritten note that was used in the Chase Bank robbery that read, “Please Put the Money i n your drawer In the Envelope,” the affidavit said.

Dorsey remains in custody at the Washington County Jail. He’s accused in Washington County Circuit Court of three counts of third-degree robbery, three counts of first-degree theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He has not yet made his first appearance on the federal bank robbery allegation in U.S. District Court in Portland.

________________

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC.

Visit oregonlive.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.