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Workers at a construction site on Southeast 82nd Avenue nabbed a suspected bank robbery Monday.

(Maxine Bernstein/The Oregonian)

Construction worker Brad Hanson was on the site of Portland Community College's expanding Southeast Center on Monday morning, talking to a roofer about what job they were going to tackle next.

Suddenly, their eyes turned to a man running through the sprawling construction site.

"That's typically unusual, plus he had no hard hat or tools," said Hanson, 47.

About 10 seconds later, the construction foreman approached and asked if they'd seen a guy running who had just robbed the next-door Bank of the West.

"The roofer and myself took off after him," Hanson said.

"The roofer dropped him. I fell on top of him, and I 'chicken-winged him," Hanson said, describing how he held the man's arm behind his back.

"We didn't think about any weapons. We just attacked," Hanson said later Monday, as he completed a full day's work.

A man had taken a cab to the Bank of the West, at Southeast Division and 82nd Avenue, and gave a teller a demand note for money. He then got back inside the cab, and a bank dye pack exploded, leaving red paint all over his hands, Portland police said.

That's when the man took off running, squeezing through the fence on the construction site.

Hanson and the roofer held the man until police arrived.

"He kept saying he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe," Hanson said.

Police said Frazer Scott Piccolo, 44, took a swing at one of the workers, but missed. The roofer then punched and knocked Piccolo to the ground. Piccolo is now in custody on a federal bank robbery allegation.

Hanson works for Fred Shearer & Sons, Inc. He said he didn't know the roofer's name but said he works for Arrow Roofing and Sheet Metal Inc.

Hanson said he didn't want any attention, noting he had successfully avoided most of the TV media who were around the site earlier in the day.

"I don't want the glory. We just did what any citizen could have done," Hanson said. "At least, that's what I hope anyone would do."

Hanson, though, mused that the bank robbery suspect clearly wasn't thinking too clearly.

"If you just robbed a bank, you shouldn't run through a site with a bunch of A-type construction workers," he said.

He smiled, and walked off the job with co-workers about 3:30 p.m.

– Maxine Bernstein