Suspect in Royal Oak Bank Robbery Arrested

A 29-year-old Warren man wanted in the Wednesday morning robbery of a Royal Oak bank  was arrested late last night.

"Thanks to the outstanding media coverage, the Royal Oak Police Department received information as to the identity of the suspect that robbed the (509 E. 13 Mile) yesterday, June 22, 2011," Lt. Thomas Goad said in a statement. 

Royal Oak officers along with agents from the FBI and Warren police officers  apprehended the suspect late Wednesday night at his place of employment, Goad said.

"We got lots of tips," FBI Special Agent Bob Beeckman said today, noting the widely shown photos of the robbery were cited among the tipsters. 

"The Royal Oak Police are seeking bank robbery charges with the Oakland County prosecutor," Beeckman said. It was not yet known when the suspect would be arraigned.

On Wednesday, bank employees told Royal Oak police that the suspect walked into the branch at 509 E. 13 Mile Rd. just east of Rochester around 11:30 a.m., pulled a sweatshirt hood over his head and confronted the employees with a camouflage-colored handgun. The suspect pointed the gun at the employees and ordered them to produce the cash from their various work stations, police said. The suspect obtained an undisclosed amount of currency and fled the scene, police said.

The entire robbery was caught on on which the suspect was clearly seen inside and outside the bank.

No one was hurt in the incident, Goad said. 

The suspect was seen  getting into a silver colored Toyota Prius and leaving the scene, police said. The car's license plate number was not immediately reported.

The suspect was described as a white male, 25-30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches with a thin build and weighing approximately 150 pounds. He has a dark mustache and goatee. The suspect was wearing a pale green button-up shirt with a black hooded sweatshirt. 

FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman described the suspect, who was also wearing a dark Detroit Tigers cap, as dangerous. "Absolutely," he said.

Goad said staff at Oak Ridge Elementary School, across 13 Mile from the bank, were not ordered to lock down as they would if school was in session and nearby businesses operated as usual. "If (the suspect) had been out in the neighborhood we would have done things differently," Goad said.

Michael Wordlow, the manager of the nearby Jiffy Lube, said he and his employees noticed a commotion at the bank after an armored truck pulled up and then police arrived, but didn't see anything in particular. Wordlow said police told them someone on East Windemere Avenue, one block north of the bank branch, saw a man hop a short brick wall in the rear of the bank building onto Windemere.

A man working construction at a dollar store across 13 Mile Road said when police officers questioned them about what they might have seen, officers told them the suspect hopped into a car parked on Windemere near where he hopped the wall. He said that when workers went for lunch at the McDonald's at the corner of 13 Mile and Rochester, employees there said police were there to review the restaurant's drive thru surveillance video.

Although the McDonald's surveillance camera has a clear view of the back of the bank building, officers were disppointed to learn the cameras don't record video, McDonald's employees said. 

The man and robbery were recorded on the bank's surveillance video, which was distributed to local media.

See the robbery in progress.