kupchurch@heraldsun.com; 419-6612
DURHAM -- A man resembling a suspect who robbed three banks in the Triad in late October and early November robbed a SunTrust bank branch in Durham late Tuesday morning and escaped.
Later in the day, a Burlington bank was robbed and police there are investigating the possibility the SunTrust branch robber is the same man.
Police said Tuesday's robbery suspect entered the Durham branch at 1516 North Gregson St., across from Northgate Mall, around 11:30 a.m. and handed a teller a note demanding money. The note said the man had a bomb, but no weapons were seen.
Police said the man then left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money.
Surveillance footage of the suspect shows him sporting a full beard and mustache, sunglasses, a green baseball cap, blue jeans and a jacket that was black across the shoulders to the chest and red on the bottom half. Witnesses told police he appeared to be in his 30s or 40s and of medium build.
Surveillance photos from banks previously robbed in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point show a suspect with the same features, baseball cap and sunglasses, but wearing a University of Cincinnati Bearcats jacket.
Cincinnati's team colors are red and black, according to a check of online collegiate sports apparel sites.
At midafternoon Tuesday, the Durham branch had reopened, police had cleared the scene and customers were moving in and out of the building. A manager declined to comment on the robbery.
At a nearby T.K. Tripps restaurant, manager Kevin Tomazic said the robbery had not affected business.
"I was worried that it might, but it didn't,'' Tomazic said.
In Burlington, a man robbed Capital Bank at 503 Huffman Mill Road about 12:48 p.m. Tuesday and escaped with an undetermined amount of money, according to Sgt. Jay Smith of the Burlington Police Department.
Smith said detectives are looking into the possibility that he was the Durham bank robber.
The Burlington robber ran from the bank and got into a small, white minivan, possibly a Chevrolet, at a nearby strip mall, and headed toward Interstate 85, Smith said.
Tuesday night, Burlington police were waiting to get the bank's surveillance photos of the robber.
He was described as a white man in his 40s, with a fair complexion, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, wearing large, dark sunglasses, a dark hat and a "ski-type jacket" that was grey or black at the top and red on the bottom. He wore jeans and had a full beard described as "salt and pepper."
Anyone with information about the Durham robbery is asked to call Investigator Jones at (919) 560-4582, ext. 29248, CrimeStoppers at (919) 683-1200, the FBI at (919) 233-7701 or (704) 377-9200 or the N.C. Bankers' Association hotline at (800) 209-2293. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.
