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Suspect robs Bethlehem bank wearing what appears to be mask made from sweat pants

First Citizens sees first robbery of year

Robert C. Reed

First Citizens Bank on N.C. 127 North in Bethlehem was robbed Tuesday morning. According to police, a man entered the bank, flashed a silver handgun and demanded money. Here, Alexander County Deputy Dennis Foster places crime-scene tape across the entrance to the bank parking lot.

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: January 28, 2009

BETHLEHEM - Alexander County sheriff's deputies stretched yellow crime-scene tape across the driveway of First Citizens Bank on Tuesday morning after a masked man robbed it at gunpoint.

The deputies worked under cold gray skies in a steady drizzle as investigators interviewed the bank's employees and customers about the robbery. FBI and State Bureau of Investigation agents were on hand to assist.

The bank, on N.C. 127 North, was robbed at about 10:45 a.m., said Chris Bowman, Alexander County Sheriff's Office chief deputy. The suspect entered the bank, flashed a silver handgun and demanded money, Bowman said. Authorities did not disclose the amount of money taken during the robbery.

The suspect wore what appeared to be a mask made from the leg of a pair of gray sweat pants with a hole cut in it. Police described it as a "tube." He put the mask on before he went in the bank and took it off immediately upon leaving, according to police.

Witnesses described the suspect as a white male, 6 feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, with reddish-blond hair and a blond mustache. In bank surveillance camera images, the suspect appears heavyset and is wearing a red and gray flannel jacket.

The suspect left the bank in a late-model, light-colored minivan traveling eastbound on Rink Dam Road, police said. Witnesses said it was a Dodge or Chrysler van and may have been silver. At the time of the robbery, it had no license plate.

There were customers in the bank at the time of the robbery. No one was injured. The suspect didn't fire his gun during the robbery, police said.

"There will be a reward offered through Crime Stoppers and through the bank, too, I'm sure," Bowman said.

Anyone with any information about the robbery should call the Alexander County Sheriff's Office at 632-4658 or Crime Stoppers at 632-8555.