Jun. 24—Police arrested an Abiquiú man who is accused of taking a 5-gallon bucket of quarters from an Española car wash at gunpoint.

John Norman Thomas, 38, faces a felony count of armed robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court. He was arrested Thursday and is being held without bond in the county jail in Tierra Amarilla.

Española police allege Thomas walked into Quik Wash on Riverside Drive on the morning of June 17, “put a gun to [the owner’s] head and took all of his money,” a detective wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit.

Police wrote Thomas stole a 5-gallon bucket of quarters from the car wash.

Hours after the robbery, the owner of the car wash spoke about the incident to a server at nearby JoAnn’s Ranch O Casados Restaurant, the affidavit says, and she told him a man who matched the description of the robber had just eaten at the restaurant with a group of men and paid for their meal in quarters.

Both the car wash owner and the restaurant worker identified Thomas from a photo lineup, the detective wrote.