A former 1980s child actor who now lives in the Sunshine Coast town of Gibsons has been accused of committing a bank robbery in Sechelt.
Deleriyes Joe August Fisher Cramer, 42, is charged with robbery, disguising his face with the intent to commit an offence, flight from a peace officer and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
He is in custody and his next court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in provincial court in North Vancouver.
At 3 p.m. on April 28, the Sunshine Coast RCMP were called to a robbery at a financial institution on Teredo Street. Police arrived within minutes, but the male suspect had already fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Despite an exhaustive search of the area, the suspect was not located.
The man who committed the robbery was wearing a disguise: a wig with almost shoulder-length “scraggly” hair and a bandana on top, sunglasses, a dark jacket with a large, reddish design on the back of it and a black shoulder bag. The male also had facial hair.
Despite the disguise, police quickly came up with a suspect.
The day after the robbery, an officer located the suspect in a vehicle in Sechelt and tried to stop him, but he fled.
Cramer was arrested in Gibsons on Sunday.
“This was a very frightening experience for the staff and customers inside the premises,” said Sunshine Coast RCMP spokesman Const. Harrison Mohr said in a news release. “Fortunately no one was injured, and bank robberies are an extremely rare occurrence here on the Sunshine Coast.”
Cramer, who went by the name Joey Cramer when he was acting, is best known for his roles in Flight of the Navigator in 1986, Runaway in 1984 and Stone Fox in 1987, according to the Internet Movie Database.
Cramer has a history with the criminal-justice system in B.C., according to court records.
In April 2008 he was convicted of careless use or storage of a firearm and sentenced to three months of probation. He was sentenced in December 2008 to six months in jail and 12 months of probation for possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking. In August 2011, he was convicted of uttering threats and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and jailed for 25 days, the given a one-year probation period. He was ticketed in October 2011 for consuming liquor in a public place. In November 2011, he was convicted of using a forged document and given a six-month conditional sentence plus 18 months probation.
Cramer’s record shows that he has trouble following court-imposed conditions, as he has been convicted of multiple breaches of undertakings or recognizances.