TACOMA, Wash. -- A man who is a suspect in a robbery of a Bank of America in downtown Tacoma last week matches the description of a man wanted for a series of robberies along the West Coast, investigators said.

The man, who refuses to tell police his name, is being referred to by police as John J. Doe.

Doe was arrested last week after allegedly robbing a bank in downtown Tacoma. Police said Doe robbed a Bank of America branch and left behind a fake bomb that looked so realistic, the bomb squad had to be called in to destroy it.

“It appeared from the outside to our folks to be a viable explosive device. He had connections and enough showing that it very well could have been an explosive device,” said Officer Mark Fulghum of the Tacoma Police Department.

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Doe was cornered by police detectives and uniformed officers after an employee in the bank dialed 911 during the robbery. Investigators said the man was carrying a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and had several more high-powered weapons in his car.

Police believe Doe used the same method to rob a Washington Mutual branch in downtown Seattle in February, causing havoc as a police bomb squad worked to disarm that device. Read the story.

Doe, believed to be around 40 years old, matches the description of a man wanted in the April robbery of a Bank of America in San Francisco and the August robbery of a Wells Fargo in Sacramento, police said.

According to San Francisco police, in the April incident, the robber told tellers his name was Patrick Henry and that he “worked with an organization that is concerned about government bailouts of corporations." Smiling throughout, the robber demanded cash and stated that unless the manager complied, he would detonate a bomb that he was carrying with him. The cash, the robber explained, “would go to people who deserve it.”

In each robbery, the man fled with large sums of cash.

The FBI is expected to head up the investigation following Doe’s arrest in Tacoma.

Doe remains in the Pierce County Jail and refuses to give his true name.