Officers cite ‘old-fashioned’ police work in arrest of suspected robber

By Jackie Valley

Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011 | 12:04 p.m.

It’s not always DNA samples and sophisticated police technology that cracks cases. As Metro Police in the northwest valley realized last week, sometimes a simple stakeout does the trick.

That’s how police arrested 38-year-old Bohumil Capek in connection with a series of robberies, in which he allegedly simulated having a gun and used threatening language.

Northwest Area Command Lt. Jim Seebock said the investigation began Aug. 16 when a man tried to rob a convenience store along Buffalo Drive, roughly between Charleston Boulevard and Craig Road. Police declined to give exact locations, citing the ongoing investigation.

Later that night, a robbery occurred at a grocery store near the convenience store, police said. The next day, Aug. 17, a man robbed a nearby drug store.

Investigators determined the same person likely committed the robberies based on the suspect’s physical description and mode of operation, such as a specific phrase he said to clerks, Seebock said.

Police didn't have surveillance video images of the man, but based on the evidence, the police problem-solving unit began surveying probable targets along the Buffalo Drive corridor, Seebock said. The stakeouts involved both undercover and patrol officers.

The method worked Aug. 19.

As officers from the problem-solving unit watched a grocery store — one of several locations under surveillance by officers — early that morning, dispatch received a call reporting a robbery at that location, police said.

Based on the suspect description given to dispatch, officers arrested Capek shortly after 12:30 a.m. as he exited the store, Seebock said. Police didn't find a weapon in Capek’s possession despite his alleged simulations of having one.

“We had a pattern of practice; we had a set location where this was occurring,” Seebock said. “And I guess you could say we used some good old-fashioned police work putting the officers in the area where we thought it could occur again.”

Detectives are investigating whether he might have been involved in other robberies across the Las Vegas Valley.

Capek has been charged with two counts of burglary and two counts of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, according to Clark County Detention Center records. He remains in jail.

Police said he had prior arrests in connection with battery domestic violence, possession of a controlled substance and three separate incidents of driving under the influence of drugs.