A bank in Akron’s Wallhaven neighborhood was robbed shortly after opening Tuesday morning.
Police are looking for a woman who, around 9:15 a.m., entered the lobby and handed a note to the bank teller at the PNC branch at 1546 W. Market St.
The unarmed woman is seen on surveillance photos calmly standing at the counter in a blue zip-up jacket.
“Her note said that this was a robbery. Give me the money,” Lt. Rick Edwards with the Akron police paraphrased.
The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of money, which the robber stuffed into a large purse before fleeing on foot.
The Wallhaven branch was last targeted in June 2014 in a similar fashion.
Then, a 39-year-old white man was suspected of slipping a note to a teller in exchange for $100. The man was arrested and charged with second-degree felony robbery, but let go after a prosecutor determined he “was not the person who committed the offense,” court records show.
The 2014 robbery remains unsolved.
Police did not disclose the amount stolen in the most recent incident. The suspected robber this time is a black woman thought to be in her late 30s or early 40s with long black hair, between 5 feet, 2 inches and 5-foot-5 and about 125 to 150 pounds.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Akron police at 330-375-2490.
A representative at the PNC branch in Wallhaven could not comment on the incident. He referred a reporter’s questions on how tellers should react during such robberies to public relations specialists. A PNC spokesman said that for safety and security reasons, the company does not comment on how employees should behave during robberies. He said inquiries are typically referred to law enforcement.
Akron police spokesman Edwards said robbery victims should stay calm and cooperate to prevent violence.
“We encourage people when something like this happens to follow along with what they want just so no one gets injured,” said Edwards, who said bank robberies in the city are not that frequent.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.