Mesa Police Department News - 'Gotta Have It' Bandit In Custody

On February 1, 2012 at 7:00 PM the "Gotta Have It" bandit was taken into custody in Mesa. The suspect, James T. Sloan (dob 4/8/1962) is believed to be responsible for eleven armed robberies mostly in the east valley. The robberies were in Mesa , Tempe, Chandler and Phoenix.

Detectives from Mesa PD and Tempe PD, working with information from various sources, had identified Sloan as a possible suspect. Using the information, Sloan was located and taken into custody on West Inglewood in Mesa. After the arrest, Sloan was transported to the Mesa Police Headquarters where he was interviewed. During the interview, Sloan admitted involvement in all eleven of the robberies.

Sloan was booked for 4 count of armed robbery and 2 counts of attempted armed robbery in Mesa. The charges for the additional robberies will be filed by the other respective cities where the crimes were committed.

This arrest is another great example of law enforcement agencies working together to take a violent felon off the streets. We would also like to thank the media for running the story which lead to information on the suspect. We all have our different cities and cases to deal with, but the bottom line is when we all work together, bad guys go to jail.