This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Police arrested a suspected serial bank robber at gunpoint Friday in a Salt Lake City grocery store.
Michael Alexander Bacon, 45, was arrested about 4:50 p.m. inside the Brickyard Harmon's grocery store, at 3270 S. 1300 East, according to the Salt Lake City Detective Cody Lougy. Police located Bacon when an officer responded to an unrelated call in the neighborhood and happened to notice someone matching Bacon's description nearby. Bacon then took off running and the officer pursued.
Bacon led the officer on a foot chase through the neighborhood. At one point, the officer caught up to Bacon and hit him with a baton. The blow failed to stop Bacon, Lougy said, so the officer fired a Taser. That also didn't stop Bacon, who was protected by his heavy clothing.
At some point Bacon also brandished a box cutter, Lougy added. Additional officers joined the chase as it progressed.
Bacon ran into a tuxedo shop, where police hit Bacon with a second Taser shot, but he escaped that as well and ran into the Harmons.
According to Lougy, an officer then tackled Bacon and police took him into custody. Lougy called the officer a hero for taking down an armed suspect in a crowded area.
During interviews that stretched through the evening, Bacon confessed to robbing five different banks and credit unions, Lougy said. As he was being escorted to a police car afterward, he said he did it for his wife.
However, Lougy said Bacon likely committed the robberies to "feed an addiction."
Bacon's alleged robbery spree began with a Feb. 2 hold up of a North Salt Lake Zion's Bank. Over the next month and a half, Bacon robbed four more banks and credit unions in Salt Lake City and West Valley City, according to police. Investigators have described Bacon as a transient known to frequent the homeless shelters in downtown Salt Lake City.
Bacon was booked into jail on suspicion of robbery, assault against a police officer, weapons possession and drug possession.
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