Around 4 p.m. Monday, Mesa police responded to a report of an armed robbery near Loop 202 and Guadalupe Road and began searching the area for a man wearing a dark hoodie and carrying, uh, a huge machete.
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Cops set up a perimeter and stopped a man who seemed suspicious but later released him because he didn't fit the description.
Minutes later, however, officers received an updated description of the suspect that matched, yep, the man they'd just released. Apparently, someone had seen Flores change clothes after hopping over a wall.
Mesa police found the discarded garb and the machete and set out to find the man they'd just set free.
In a moment of luck or serendipity, an officer who was driving down the street in a nearby neighborhood had "heard a door slam" to a house, so the officer stopped and knocked on the door.
Out of the house came the guy they were looking for, Flores. After a brief struggle, he was arrested. Flores is being charged with aggravated assault and robbery.
