Detective and armed robbery suspect have coffee together, split bill, then resume pursuit

Two men described by police as being 'on opposite sides of a continuing matter' sat together for forty minutes at a roadside diner outside Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon, ordered coffee, paid separately and left in different directions, according to staff and to a police log entry filed later the same day.

One of the men was Detective Sergeant Raymond Pell of the state Serious Robbery Unit. The other, police confirm, is a man they have been following for eleven weeks in connection with a series of armoured vehicle interceptions across three counties. Detective Sergeant Pell said he had invited the man for coffee after passing his car on the freeway and said the conversation was 'professional throughout'. Asked whether this was standard practice, a unit spokesman said it was 'not non-standard', and declined to expand.

A waitress at the diner, who served the table twice, said the pair spoke quietly and did not appear to be arguing. 'They talked about sleeping badly, and one of them said something about owning nothing he couldn't leave behind in half a minute,' she said. 'Then they agreed that neither would hesitate if it came to it, and the taller one asked if we did the pie by the slice. We do.' She described them as 'the politest table I had all week' and noted that both tipped, independently, and at the same rate.

The Serious Robbery Unit said the surveillance operation continues unchanged and that no arrangement, understanding or arrangement-like understanding exists between the two men. The man under surveillance was observed the following morning parking outside a precious metals depository in the industrial district, where he remained, according to the log, 'for some time, reading'. Detective Sergeant Pell, asked whether he expected the matter to end well, said that he did not, and then asked the reporter whether he had ever tried the pie.