San José police say a 41-year-old man is in custody after what appears to have been a low-tech, note-passing attempt at a bank robbery earlier this month. A man walked into a bank, handed a teller a handwritten demand for cash, then took off without getting far. Investigators later zeroed in on the suspected getaway car using surveillance cameras and automated license plate readers, and arrested the man that same afternoon.
According to a post from San José Police Media Relations on X, the initial 911 call came in at about 1:15 p.m. Officers used the city's public-safety camera network and automated license-plate recognition systems to identify the suspect vehicle within seven minutes. The department says the car was tracked down at about 2:19 p.m. near Great Oaks Parkway and San Ignacio Avenue, where officers arrested the registered owner, 41-year-old Ryan Gress. The Robbery Unit is handling follow-up investigation, and Gress was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail, according to the post.
SJPD Arrests Suspect for Attempted Bank Robberyhttps://t.co/h0lttSshEB pic.twitter.com/GfBwQ5jFVZ
— San José Police Media Relations (@SJPD_PIO) February 12, 2026
How the Real Time Intelligence Center Helped
SJPD credited its Real Time Intelligence Center, a team of analysts that pulls together camera feeds, automated plate readers, and other data in real time, with speeding up the identification and arrest, per the department's RTIC page. That page notes that officers now have access to more than 1,000 public-safety cameras and that footage is stored for 30 days. The city's Connect San Jose program also allows residents to register or integrate private cameras to help with investigations.
Case Details and Who to Contact
The department identified the suspect as Ryan Gress, 41, described in the release as an unhoused San José resident, and listed the case number as 26-034-0419. Chief Paul Joseph, quoted in the department post, said RTIC sped identification and apprehension, reducing the time to minutes. Anyone with information related to the case is asked to contact Detective Leonard #4913 at [email protected] or 408-277-4166, the department added.
