THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120186
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Local, state and federal authorities are still searching a week later for the armed robber of a First Citizens Bank branch in Elizabeth City.
``We're still working on it and following up on every lead,'' Elizabeth City Police Capt. W.G. Williams Jr. said.
On Nov. 4, a man hid near the Ehringhaus Street bank and forced an employee at gunpoint to let him inside the bank just before it opened for business.
He locked the door behind the woman, robbed the bank of an undisclosed amount of money and left a small box with an antenna wrapped in gray masking tape on the tellers' countertop, Williams said.
The robber, speaking with a foreign accent and wielding a pistol, told about 10 bank employees the box contained a bomb and then fled with a teller's car to the near by Farm Fresh supermarket parking lot.
``We're not sure if he was picked up by an accomplice or just fled in another car or what,'' Williams said.
A bomb squad was called in to assist police and fire officials, who had taped off a large portion of the Holly Square Shopping Center containing a supermarket and fast food restaurant.
The small box with the antenna taped to it turned out to be full of facial tissues, Williams said.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male of average build, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 165 pounds. He had dark brown hair and was wearing a Washington Redskins cap, tan windbreaker, blue pants with a white stripe down the side and tennis shoes at the time of the robbery.
Williams said police are uncertain where the man may have fled. ``We really don't know right now,'' he said.
Bank robberies in Elizabeth City are rare, Williams said.
``Our average is one a year, and we're hoping this is our one,'' he said.
Anyone with useful information on the First Citizens robbery should contact the Elizabeth City Police Department at 335-4321 or any local Federal Bureau of Investigation office. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
A bank camera recorded the robber, who police said was a Hispanic
male about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 165 pounds.
KEYWORDS: BANK ROBBERY
by CNB