S. Burlington police seek bank robbery suspect

SOUTH BURLINGTON - Police in South Burlington were seeking a bank-robbery suspect Tuesday night after a man entered the Merchants Bank at 929 Shelburne Road and made off with cash.

Police said the man handed a note to the teller demanding money but did not show a weapon. Investigators described him as 5 feet 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 180 to 200 pounds and wearing a black baseball hat, a black hooded sweatshirt and a blue short-sleeve T-shirt pulled over the sweatshirt.

He also wore black "cloth type" gloves, police said, and his face was partially covered with "bandage type material."

The suspect fled the bank on foot toward the K-Mart on Shelburne Road with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. No injuries were reported.

Nine police cars were parked outside of the bank late Tuesday afternoon while several officers gathered inside the building. A police canine tracked the suspect's scent from inside of the building, across the parking lot of the neighboring K-mart store and into the wooded area that separates the shopping center from the nearby Hannaford and Lowes stores.

South Burlington Police Chief Trevor Whipple said it has been a while since the city saw a bank robbery. He encouraged anyone who sees the suspect to call police.

“For anyone to walk into a bank and demand money, that makes me question what their motives are,” he said. “Whether they showed a weapon or not, we don’t know if they have one; we don’t know their desperation.”

Whipple said witnesses last saw the suspect walking outside of the bank toward the K-mart plaza.

"Officers are continuing to canvas the neighborhood here with the picture trying to see if anyone saw this male before or after the robbery as well as looking at neighboring businesses to see if they may have captured on video surveillance," he said.

Joshua Howland, a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, was collecting spare change outside the K-mart when he said he saw a man matching the suspect's description "skip at a good clip" across the parking lot.

"It's a little unnerving for me, because I have to bring this kettle everywhere with me," he said, referring to the red pot where people donate money during the holidays. "I'm going to have to carry this kettle under my arm with a bank robber on the loose."

Police asked that anyone with information contact the South Burlington Police Department at 846-4111 or Champlain Valley Crime Stoppers at 846-4666.