LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Police arrested a local man on Thursday suspected of robbing a check cashing store back in January.

David Alvarado allegedly attacked an employee who was delivering money to the store, according to Fullerton police.

KNX 1070′s Mike Landa reports Alvarado’s not-so-clean getaway may have broken the case wide open.

“Alvarado sprayed the employee with a pepper spray-like chemical agent, and then began choking him in the street,” said Sergeant Andrew Goodrich.

The employee then threw the bag of money he was carrying. Alvarado grabbed the cash, jumped in a vehicle and fled the scene.

Goodrich said Alvarado abandoned the getaway car after it had a flat tire.

Detectives identified him as a suspect after collecting DNA evidence from the vehicle.