UPDATE: Armed Man Flees with Cash After Robbing Royal Oak Bank

Royal Oak police and the FBI are searching for the armed man who robbed a branch in Royal Oak late this morning.

Bank employees told Royal Oak police that the suspect walked into the branch at 509 E. 13 Mile Rd. just east of Rochester before noon today, 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.

No one was hurt in the incident, Royal Oak Police Lt. Tom Goad said. 

The suspect was last seen getting into a silver colored Toyota Prius, police said. The car's license plate number was not reported.

"Somebody saw him get into a car," Goad said. "Last I heard, he was headed out onto 13 Mile" from Windemere. Goad wasn't sure which direction the car headed because officers were still interviewing witnesses and finalizing reports Wednesday afternoon. 

The suspect is 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. 

Anyone with information about the man, who was recorded on the bank's surveillance video, or the robbery is asked to call Royal Oak police at 248-246-3500 and reference report 11-2231 or the FBI at (313) 965-2323.

See the robbery in progress.