OREM — A man who investigators say robbed a 29-year-old Orem woman at gunpoint at an ATM on New Year's Day has been arrested.
Michael David Taylor, 35, of Cedar Hills, was arrested Wednesday at a friend's house and booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of aggravated robbery, heroin possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, and for being a sex offender and failing to inform that state that he had moved.
About 4:30 p.m. Jan. 1, a woman was making a deposit at an ATM outside Utah Community Credit Union, 305 W. 800 North.
While the woman waited in line, she noticed a man standing in the parking lot, said Orem Police Lt. Craig Martinez.
"She thought it was kind of odd at first but didn't think anything of it," Martinez said.
When it was the woman's turn at the ATM, the man walked toward her, pointed a gun at her head and demanded that she withdraw money for him, he said.
The woman gave the man an undisclosed amount of cash. He then took her car keys and cellphone and ran off, Martinez said.
"The woman saw the man throw her car keys in the snow," he said.
When police later searched the area, they found a backpack, hoodie and the gun allegedly used in the robbery inside a garbage can.
The backpack contained a black handgun, black gloves, and the woman's wallet, including her credit cards. It also contained toilet paper, drug paraphernalia and several other items, according to a Utah County Jail report filed in 4th District Court.
A search by investigators led to the discovery of footprints in the snow and drug paraphernalia in the bathroom of a nearby Family Dollar store that police believed belonged to Taylor, according the report.
"The gun was a black Airsoft gun with black electrical tape put over the tip of it to make it look real," Martinez said.
When police arrested Taylor at his friend's house, he had seven bindles of heroin in his pocket, the report stated.
According to the Utah Sex Offender Registry, Taylor was convicted in 2003 of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.
He was convicted in 2012 of an amended charge of attempting to fail to register as a sex offender, according to court records.
Taylor pleaded no contest to child abuse, inflicting serious bodily injury, in 2012, and theft in 2003, according to court records. He has been booked into the Utah County Jail 12 times since 2001.
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