52-year-old man booked for attempted bank robbery

A 52-year-old man, caught by deputies shortly after an attempted bank robbery in Ramona on Thursday afternoon, was being booked into Central Jail for robbery by early evening, according to authorities.

The robbery suspect has been identified as Stephen Coulter of Ramona.

The attempted robbery occurred at the Wells Fargo office inside the Stater Bros. market in the 1600 block of Main Street around 2:15 p.m., said Sgt. Greg Rylaarsdam.

The sheriff’s department reported that the suspect gave a demand note to the store manager. The manager did not give the man any money and called 911.

The man left the store and got into a vehicle with another male while the manager gave a description of the suspect to the 911 dispatcher, the sheriff’s department stated.

Rylaarsdam said about five marked sheriff’s cars were nearby when the call came in.

“Thank goodness we were all kind of close to the area,” Rylaarsdam said.

Deputies arrived at the parking lot as the vehicle was leaving and detained both men. The driver of the vehicle was not arrested, reported the sheriff’s department.