A Woodburn man was sentenced to more than 8 years in prison for robbing a convenience store and attempting to rob another one while wearing fake bomb vests.
Marion County Judge Courtland Geyer handed down the sentence to Nicholas Contreras-Salmion, 34, after Contreras-Salmion pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of second-degree robbery, second-degree attempted robbery and possessing a fake explosive device, court records show.
Contreras-Salmion started his robbery spree on Jan. 19 when he walked up to the register of the Crossroads Grocery in Woodburn, unbuttoned his shirt and flashed a vest strapped with fake explosives, police and the Marion County District Attorney’s Office said.
With what appeared to be a detonator brandished in his left hand, Contreras-Salmion handed the clerk a cloth bag and threatened to detonate the seemingly real bomb if the clerk didn’t hand over the money in the register, officials said.
Afraid that the device was real, the clerk handed over the money, and Contreras-Salmion fled the scene, officials said.
About a week later, Woodburn police found a fake bomb vest that matched the one that Contreras-Salmion used in the January robbery — prompting police to call in Oregon State Police’s bomb squad. Officers discovered that the vest was a hoax, officials said.
Less than a month later, on Feb. 7, Contreras-Salmion turned up again: this time at the EZ Stop Grocery, also in Woodburn, officials said.
Contreras-Salmion loitered near the candy aisle until another customer went into the bathroom, then walked up to the sales counter and unzipped his sweatshirt to reveal another fake bomb vest, according to police and the DA’s office.
He told the employee behind the counter that she had seven minutes to open the safe — but the employee said that she didn’t have access to it and reached for her phone, officials said.
In response, Contreras-Salmion pushed a button that triggered blinking red lights on the vest, and he warned that the employee was down to three minutes before detonation.
The other customer in the store re-emerged from the bathroom, prompting Contreras-Salmion to flee the store without any cash, officials said.
On Feb. 16, police caught Contreras-Salmion walking along the street around 10 a.m. near the intersection of North Pacific Highway and Lincoln Street, police said. The officers found that he was wearing another bomb vest, and so they waited to detain him until Oregon State Police bomb experts arrived and determined that the vest was a hoax.
When police spoke with him, Contreras-Salmion admitted that he’d engineered the robberies because he was out of work and needed the money, officials said.
A grand jury indicted Contreras-Salmion later that month, court records show.
He had no previous convictions in Oregon.
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