A man was arrested Monday night after he allegedly tried to take a wallet from another man’s back pocket in a Taco Bell bathroom.
Jacob Orender, 30, is charged with felony robbery. Police responded at about 9 p.m. to the Taco Bell at 309 N. Walnut St. after restaurant employees called about a fight in the restroom. Bloomington Police Department Lt. John Kovach said they told police the suspect would be a man wearing a gray plaid zip-up shirt and bleeding from the face.
As police arrived, a man fitting the suspect’s description flagged police down near the restaurant at North Walnut and East Eighth streets. Police identified him as Orender. He told police he’d been urinating in the Taco Bell bathroom when another man came up to him and punched him in the face six times. He requested medical attention but declined it when an ambulance arrived, Kovach said.
At the Taco Bell, police found the other party, who had asked employees to report the altercation. The 26-year-old man told police he had gone into the restroom and been followed by Orender, who confronted him and asked something to the effect of “What have you got?” Orender then pulled the victim’s wallet out of his back pocket, the victim told police. In response, the victim punched Orender in the face and grabbed his wallet back.
He did not recall how many times he punched him. Employees broke up the fight, and Orender left.
Orender gave police a different version of events, Kovach said. He said he’d gone into the rest room and the victim had become smart with him, though he could not give specifics on what the victim said. Then the victim punched him in the face.
Police observed that Orender was intoxicated, Kovach said.
The manager of the Taco Bell told police Orender had been in the restaurant for an extended period of time and he was harassing customers, which Orender also denied.
Police arrested Orender on the robbery charge and took him to the Monroe County Correctional Center.
Jack Evans
